UAP Science Advisory Council Formed to Support Trump Administration's New Interagency UAP Governance Board

On June 17, 2026, DefenseScoop reporter Brandi Vincent published details of a newly formed UAP Science Advisory Council, announced publicly by Harvard University Professor Avi Loeb — formally the Frank B. Baird, Jr., Professor of Science — via an online post earlier that week. Loeb confirmed he will lead the council and described its primary mission as advising the U.S. government on "how to resolve the nature of UAP."

The council is structured to report to a higher-level interagency UAP Governance Board jointly established by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), the FBI, and the Department of Defense. An unnamed ODNI official told DefenseScoop that the board is designed "to provide guidance, recommendations and coordination at the interagency level, bringing together military, law enforcement, the intelligence community, and other civilian agencies." The official confirmed that the board held its inaugural meeting on June 16, 2026 — the day before the DefenseScoop report — and that the UAP Science Advisory Council is one of several advisory groups supporting it from outside the U.S. government.

Loeb stated that the Governance Board "will assist in the timely coordination of declassification of UAP-related information, in accordance with Executive Order 13526, Classified National Security Information," and that all data shared with the science council will be unclassified. He highlighted findings from a June 5, 2026 AARO report signed by AARO Director Jon Kosloski, noting that during two days in October 2023 law enforcement officials reported anomalous phenomena including an orange "mother" orb launching smaller red orbs, with roughly 40 percent of the reported cases remaining unresolved and without a reasonable explanation.

Loeb disclosed the full roster of council members and their designated focus areas: Prof. Carol Cleland (anomaly identification); Dr. Richard Cloete (data analysis and AI tools); Dr. Omer Eldadi (data management, AI, and human psychology); Dr. Tim Gallaudet (oceanography); Ross Howard (communication); Ben Lamm (oceanography and biology); Dr. Devesh Nandal (numerical analysis and astrophysics); Prof. Garry Nolan (molecular biology and materials science); Dr. Michael Shermer (study of anomalies); Dr. Peter Skafish (anthropology); Prof. Matthew Szydagis (instrumentation and data collection); and Dr. Jennice Vilhauer (quantitative psychology). Retired U.S. Navy Admiral Tim Gallaudet, a former commander of the Naval Meteorology and Oceanography Command and former assistant secretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere, told DefenseScoop he intends to apply his expertise in ocean science and government leadership to the council's mission.

The council's formation is the latest development in a series of UAP transparency actions taken under the Trump administration, which began with the president's February 2026 directive to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and other agency heads to identify and release government UAP-related files. Three document releases occurred under this initiative — on May 8, May 22, and June 12, 2026 — as part of the government's PURSUE disclosure effort. Loeb framed the scientific challenge in national security terms, noting that unresolved UAP could represent adversarial technologies compromising U.S. defenses and called for better sensors and AI algorithms to collect and interpret new data. The meeting cadence for the science council had not been determined at the time of publication.