Person
H.P. Robertson
Also known as Howard P. Robertson, Dr. Robertson
- Mathematical physicist, California Institute of Technology; chair of the 1953 CIA Scientific Advisory Panel on UFOs
Howard P. Robertson (1903–1961) was a mathematical physicist at the California Institute of Technology. In January 1953 he chaired the CIA's Scientific Advisory Panel on UFOs, the Robertson Panel, which concluded that UFOs posed no direct threat to national security and recommended a public "debunking" and education effort, a recommendation critics see as the origin of the stigma around reporting.
Sources: Robertson Panel report (1953)
Facts and claims
- documented Caltech physicist H. P. Robertson chaired the CIA-convened scientific panel that met on 14–18 January 1953 and concluded UFOs posed no direct threat to national security. Source: Robertson Panel report (Durant Report): Report of Meetings of Scientific Advisory Panel on Unidentified Flying Objects