Harvard Astrophysicist Avi Loeb Named Head of New UAP Science Advisory Council

Harvard astrophysicist Avi Loeb was appointed head of the UAP Science Advisory Council on July 11, 2026. The White House, the Pentagon, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the FBI, and the intelligence community established the council. It will provide scientific reports and advice to the UAP Governing Board.

The council's stated purpose is to resolve the nature of UAP, or unidentified anomalous phenomena. Loeb has made claims about evidence of alien technology since at least 2015, including that the object Oumuamua was an alien probe rather than an exo-comet and that small metal spheres found in the ocean were wreckage of an alien spacecraft.

The council includes physicists, a pathologist, a computer scientist, a philosopher, a psychologist, and the founding publisher of Skeptic magazine.