Short Note / Jul 05, 2026
Avi Loeb's UAP Science Advisory Council launches website, reveals member roster
The UAP Science Advisory Council led by Avi Loeb has launched its public portal, confirming its advisory role for the UAP Governance Board and revealing a membership roster that includes both UAP advocates and scientific skeptics.
Avi Loeb's UAP Science Advisory Council has a public home.
On July 1, 2026, the newly appointed group launched its official portal at uapsac.com. The launch turns an early White House announcement into something concrete: a named roster, a defined scope, and rules for how the group actually operates.
The most notable detail is the membership list itself.
The Roster: Skeptics and Advocates
The council's 15-member roster brings together prominent figures from opposite sides of the UAP discussion, alongside specialists in data science, instrumentation, and public communication:
- The UAP Researchers: Pathologist Garry Nolan (Stanford/The Sol Foundation), retired Rear Admiral Tim Gallaudet (oceanographer), and physicist Kevin Knuth (UAlbany/UAPx) represent the active, research-focused wing of the community.
- The Mainstream Skeptics: Michael Shermer (founder of The Skeptics Society) is listed as a member, representing a direct attempt to bring traditional scientific skepticism into the evaluation loop.
- The Specialists: The group includes Robin Hanson (George Mason economist and statistician), Carol Cleland (CU Boulder philosopher and astrobiologist), Liberty Vittert (data scientist at Washington University), and Ben Lamm (CEO of Colossal Biosciences).
Putting Shermer on the same advisory list as Nolan and Loeb signals something deliberate: this council wants friction. Debate, not automatic validation, appears to be the point.
The Mandate: Unclassified Only
The council's charter sets a strict boundary: UAPSAC will only review unclassified information.
According to the site's statement: "The council will only review unclassified information that can be communicated openly to the public. This is a great benefit for open scientific deliberations on the nature of UAP."
This addresses a structural limitation. The council operates as an advisory body to the interagency UAP Governance Board (which coordinates inputs from AARO, the ODNI, the FBI, and the Department of War). While the Governance Board manages declassification processes, the advisory council itself has no clearance to access classified sensor feeds or black-budget files. It will evaluate the data the government chooses to release, not the data it holds back.
The Next Steps
A website launch is a public relations step, but the roster and unclassified mandate tell us how the council intends to work. It will rely on public data releases, open academic debate, and standard scientific skepticism.
Success here won't be measured by who's on the list. It'll come down to the first cases the Governance Board actually refers—and whether the unclassified files hold enough raw telemetry to say anything meaningful at all.
