Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP) have become a worldwide mystery—and media sensation—with credible witnesses, including military pilots, observing aerial objects that cannot be easily identified. Are these objects real or sensor artifacts? Are they a threat to aerospace safety and national security? Are they unknown natural phenomena? What else could they be?
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In June 2022, NASA appointed a 16-member independent study team that spent a year evaluating UAP from a scientific perspective. In this program, a multidisciplinary panel of experts, including two members of the study team, will explore the space agency’s approach to studying UAP and discuss a roadmap for future UAP research that utilizes a rigorous, evidence-based approach.
In-person attendance option
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This registration is for virtual attendance via Zoom webinar. If you would prefer to attend this program in-person at the Linda Hall Library, please follow this link to register:
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Nadia Drake, PhD, is a freelance science journalist and former contributing writer at National Geographic. She specializes in covering astronomy, astrophysics, and planetary science, as well as anything involving jungles and spiders. Her byline has also appeared in The New York Times, The Atlantic, Scientific American, Nature, Wired, and Science News, among other publications. She has a PhD in genetics from Cornell University.
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Dr. Drake was one of 16 members of NASA's Independent UAP Study Team.
In 2004, Lt. Cmdr. Alex Dietrich had an encounter with an unidentified anomalous phenomenon over the Pacific Ocean while flying with the USS Nimitz strike force. She later testified before Congress and appeared in numerous media outlets, including 60 Minutes, to discuss the UAP encounter.
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She served a 20-year career as a Naval officer and strike fighter pilot (F/A-18F), where she served two combat deployments in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan. She earned a BS in civil engineering and an MBA from George Washington University and is currently a scholar in residence at the Lockheed Martin Engineering Management Program at the University of Colorado.
Greg Eghigian, PhD, is Professor of History and Bioethics at Penn State, where his recent interests are in the history of UFO sightings and claims of alien contact throughout the world. He is the author of the forthcoming book, After the Flying Saucers Came: A Global History of the UFO Phenomenon (forthcoming May 6, 2024, by Oxford University Press).
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Dr. Eghigian earned a BA in psychology from Bard College and an MA and PhD in modern European history from the University of Chicago.
Joshua Semeter, PhD, was one of 16 individuals who served on the NASA UAP Study Team, which issued its final report on September 14, 2023, with a series of recommendations for the agency could help or move our understanding of UAP forward.
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Dr. Semeter is a professor of electrical and computer engineering as well as the director of the Center for Space Physics at Boston University. He earned a PhD in electrical engineering from Boston University.
