The Center for UFO Studies (CUFOS) is a privately funded

UFO An unidentified flying object (UFO), more recently renamed by US officials as a UAP (unidentified aerial phenomenon), is any perceived aerial phenomenon that cannot be immediately identified or explained. On investigation, most UFOs are id ...

research group. The group was founded in 1973 by J. Allen Hynek, who at the time was chair of the Department of

Astronomy Astronomy () is a natural science that studies astronomical object, celestial objects and phenomena. It uses mathematics, physics, and chemistry in order to explain their origin and chronology of the Universe, evolution. Objects of interest ...

Northwestern University Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston, Illinois. Founded in 1851, Northwestern is the oldest chartered university in Illinois and is ranked among the most prestigious academic institutions in the world. Charte ...

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolita ...

.Franch John, ''The Secret Life of J. Allen Hynek''. Skeptical Inquirer Volume 37.1, January/February 2013

History

Hynek was a scientific consultant for

Project Blue Book Project Blue Book was the code name for the systematic study of unidentified flying objects by the United States Air Force from March 1952 to its termination on December 17, 1969. The project, headquartered at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, O ...

, the

United States Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the air service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part of the United States Army Signal ...

official study of the UFO phenomenon from 1948 to 1969. Although Hynek started out as a skeptic and helped the Air Force to debunk most UFO reports, he gradually became convinced that a small number of UFO cases were not hoaxes or explainable as misidentifications of natural phenomena, and that these cases might represent something extraordinary — even alien visitation from other planets. When the Air Force shut down

in 1969, Hynek, in 1973, founded the Center for UFO Studies (CUFOS) to continue to collect and study UFO reports. Ufologist

James W. Moseley James Willett Moseley (August 4, 1931 – November 16, 2012) was an American observer, author, and commentator on the subject of unidentified flying objects (UFOs). Over his nearly sixty-year career, he exposed UFO hoaxes and engineered hoaxes ...

wrote that CUFOS was "... the first real attempt to set up a private research group genuinely dedicated to scientific investigations and study of UFOs." Moseley observed that CUFOS "wasn't a saucer club and, for a while, wasn't open to general membership. Participation was restricted to scientists and other professionals who donated their time and expertise, Hynek's invisible college. This wouldn't last — though CUFOS has."

Operation

Started in

Evanston, Illinois Evanston ( ) is a city, suburb of Chicago. Located in Cook County, Illinois, United States, it is situated on the North Shore along Lake Michigan. Evanston is north of Downtown Chicago, bordered by Chicago to the south, Skokie to the west, Wil ...

, but now based in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

, CUFOS continues to be a small research organization stressing scientific analysis of UFO cases. Its extensive archives include historically valuable files from defunct civilian research groups such as

National Investigations Committee On Aerial Phenomena The National Investigations Committee On Aerial Phenomena (NICAP) is an unidentified flying object (UFO) research group most active in the United States from the 1950s to the 1980s. It remains active primarily as an informational depository on th ...

(NICAP), the largest UFO research group of the 1950s and 1960s.(Clark, p. 539) Following Hynek's death in 1986, CUFOS was renamed the J. Allen Hynek Center for UFO Studies in his honor. Mark Rodeghier, a current associate editor of the

Journal of Scientific Exploration The Society for Scientific Exploration, or SSE, is a group committed to studying fringe science. The opinions of the organization in regard to what are the proper limits of scientific exploration are often at odds with those of mainstream science. ...

, has been the Director of CUFOS since 1986.

Ufologists This is a list of notable people who are ufologists (UFO researchers). Argentina * Juan Posadas, (1912–1981), Trotskyist theorist who blended together Trotskyism and Ufology. Posadas' version of Trotskyism is regarded as its own strai ...

who have served on the CUFOS Board of Directors are

Jerome Clark Jerome Clark (born November 27, 1946)"Jerome Clark". ''Contemporary Authors Online''. June 12, 2002. Retrieved on April 11, 2012. is an American writer, specializing in unidentified flying objects and other paranormal subjects. He has appeared ...

, UFO historian and author of ''The UFO Encyclopedia'';

Michael D. Swords Michael D. Swords is a retired professor of Natural Science at Western Michigan University, who writes about general sciences and anomalous phenomena, particularly parapsychology, cryptozoology, and ufology, editing the academic publication ''The J ...

, a retired professor of

natural science Natural science is one of the branches of science concerned with the description, understanding and prediction of natural phenomena, based on empirical evidence from observation and experimentation. Mechanisms such as peer review and repeatab ...

Western Michigan University Western Michigan University (Western Michigan, Western or WMU) is a public research university in Kalamazoo, Michigan. It was initially established as Western State Normal School in 1903 by Governor Aaron T. Bliss for the training of teachers ...

; and Thomas E. Bullard, a

folklorist Folklore studies, less often known as folkloristics, and occasionally tradition studies or folk life studies in the United Kingdom, is the branch of anthropology devoted to the study of folklore. This term, along with its synonyms, gained currenc ...

Indiana University Indiana University (IU) is a system of public universities in the U.S. state of Indiana. Campuses Indiana University has two core campuses, five regional campuses, and two regional centers under the administration of IUPUI. *Indiana Universit ...

. The Center for UFO Studies (CUFOS) has two principal activities. First, it maintains a library and archives of UFO-related materials, which are open for use by researchers and investigators who are writing about UFO-related topics. These materials include books, articles, documents, and sighting reports. Second, CUFOS continues to compile and analyze reports of UFO incidents from around the world.

References

Sources

*Clark, Jerome. ''The UFO Encyclopedia.''

Omnigraphics Omnigraphics is a publishing company located in Detroit, Michigan Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government ...

: Detroit. 1998. *Moseley, James W. and Karl T. Pflock. ''Shockingly Close to the Truth!'' Prometheus Books: Amherst, New York. 2002.

External links

* {{Authority control UFO organizations Research organizations in the United States Evanston, Illinois UFO culture in the United States

History

Operation

See also

References

Sources

External links