The White House has tapped Avi Loeb, a Harvard University astronomer known for his provocative claims about alien technology, to chair a new scientific advisory council focused on unidentified flying objects—what the government now calls unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP).
Loeb, who led Harvard's astronomy department until 2020 and has long argued that extraterrestrial artifacts may already be present on Earth, will join a team tasked with assessing the national security implications of UAP sightings. The council will report to a newly formed UAP Governance Board under the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, part of the Trump administration's push to declassify long-sought records on the topic.
“It’s like a detective story,” Loeb told the Associated Press. “It’s a lot of fun, as long as you don’t pay too much attention to the critics.”
Loeb rose to public prominence in 2017 when he suggested that ‘Oumuamua, an interstellar object that passed through the solar system, was not a natural rock but a piece of alien technology. He later founded the Galileo Project at Harvard to systematically search for evidence of extraterrestrial life, and in 2023 he led an expedition that retrieved metallic fragments from the Pacific Ocean that he believes may be of non-human origin.
His theories have made him a celebrity in UFO circles but have also drawn sharp criticism from mainstream scientists. Steve Desch, an astrophysicist at Arizona State University, told the AP: “I don’t know what’s going to come of this, but we’re not going to get any closer to answering these questions with him in charge.”
Sean Kirkpatrick, a former Pentagon official who previously led the government’s UAP investigation office, also questioned the appointment, saying Loeb is “not viewed favorably” by much of the scientific community and lacks national security experience. The move comes amid broader debates about transparency and scientific rigor in government investigations—paralleling controversies at other institutions, such as the University of Texas professor fired over a Kirk post and the ongoing Harvard grade cap controversy.
Loeb’s appointment signals the administration’s willingness to embrace unconventional voices in its push to declassify UAP-related information. Critics argue that elevating a figure with such polarizing views could undermine the credibility of the effort, while supporters see it as a necessary step to break through bureaucratic secrecy.
