Registry of experts/consultants prepared to help with UFO research issues

I thought it would be worthwhile inviting members of ATS with expertise in any area which is potentially relevant to UFO research (which, in my experience, extends to virtually any area of expertise) to volunteer to answer questions within their area(s) of expertise. This thread can then act as a form of registry of such volunteers and their indication of their areas of expertise (whether as a result of their profession or hobbies).

This thread is inspired by the old lists of consultants to MUFON and BUFORA (discussed further below), and – significantly - another thread here on ATS entitled “The UFO-Alien Applied Linguistics Registry” started and maintained by Scramjet76 (which I’ve found useful to find someone prepared to do a bit of translating of foreign UFO material when Babelfish’s automated translations were sadly insufficient).

One of the fascinating features of researching “UFO” reports is the wide range of areas of knowledge that can become relevant.

After reading over 1,000 books relating to UFOs/aliens and quite a few governments documents etc, I would not like to guess how many different fields of expertise have been touched upon within that material (many of which could have been explored in greater detail...).

Some of the areas of knowledge/expertise that are potentially relevant are pretty obvious. For example:

Seeking to examine common alternative explanations of UFO sightings can involve delving into meteorology, astronomy, aviation history and countless other fields.

Eye-witness testimony gives rise to all sorts of issues regarding perception and memory, which calls upon scientific knowledge ranging from various areas of psychology to optics.

Expertise in Computer Generated Imagery and video compositing is useful when considering the latest “UFO” video that has popped up on Youtube.

Several of the physical sciences (e.g. chemistry, physics) are clearly relevant when considering claims that a UFO left behind physical evidence which remains available for testing.

Considering the mass of UFO reports which have been collated into UFO databases following countless man-hours of work would be greatly assisted by a solid grounding in mathematics (particularly statistical analysis).

Other areas of expertise arise less frequently and can be fairly surprising. For example, one project I’ve been working on during the lack few weeks has involved dipping into areas as diverse as fetal abnormalities, the X-Files and various fields of veterinary medicine.

Obviously, no single person can look into all these areas properly without assistance.

Several of the largest UFO groups (e.g. MUFON and BUFORA) have, at various periods in their past, sought to assist UFO researchers/investigator by publishing lists of individuals that are prepared to assist by acting as consultants within various fields of expertise.

See, for example, the list of consultants on an old webpage created by MUFON at the link below.
web.archive.org...://www.mufon.com/consultants.htm

That list included consultants in the following fields:

Anthropology
Archaeoastronomy
Astronautics
Biochemistry
Biotechnology
Business Administration
Cell Biology
Chemistry
Clinical Hypnotherapy
Clinical Psychology
Computer Science
Dental Surgery
Dentistry
Developmental Psychology
Education
Engineering, Electrical
Engineering, Physics
English Literature
Environmental Science
Experimental Psychology
Forensic Anthropology
Forensic Science
Genetics/Biochemistry
Geochemistry
Geology
Geophysics
Gynecology
History
Hollywood
Horticulture
Human Development
Hypnosis
Hypnotherapy
Industrial Design
Internal Medicine
Law
Leadership Studies
Math/Engineering
Mathematics
Mechanical Engineering
Medicine
Naturopathic Medicine
Nuclear Engineering
Astronomy
Nuclear Physics
Oral Medicine, Dentistry
Oral Surgery
Osteopathy
Parapsychology
Pharmacy
Photo Analysis
Physical Chemistry
Physics
Physiology
Plastic Surgery
Podiatric Medicine
Propulsion
Propulsion Systems
Psychiatry
Psychology
Public Education
Radio Broadcasting
Religion
Social Psychology
Sociology
Surgery
Theology
Vascular Medicine
Veterinary Medicine
Zoology

Rather than creating such a registry it would, of course, be possible to simply start a thread on a relevant question and simply hope that individuals with the necessary expertise spot that thread and notice that their expertise may be relevant to a particular issue in that thread. In my experience, relying upon that hope is an imperfect solution. Given the large volume of threads here on ATS, few people can read more than a small fraction of them. It is often necessary to either seek out relevant information or pose relevant questions to someone with the relevant expertise (if you can find someone that will not simply ignore a request since it relates to the nutty subject of UFOs). A request made by U2U to someone that has volunteered to help may prove more fruitful.

By the way, I was concerned that starting this thread might be contrary to the ATS rules about data mining by seeking personal information about members. I’ve been in touch with Springer by U2U and he gave the green light for this thread and suggested that I mention that he has "authorized" the thread to avoid any confusion by the staff who may not have seen the discussion about it earlier in the Staff Forum.


As ScramJet76 stated in his Linguistics Registry thread, “Anyways, if you would like to put your name on the list, maybe we can put this internet thing to (continued) good use!”


All the best,

Isaac

Great idea!! but no water or sewer systems experts on your list...

to bad i'm a plumber/backflow tester....

i guess UFO's don't have flush toilets ...

Isaac-
You know I'm always on board for digital imaging and photo analysis. Just say when.

~Jeff

Please translate the following broadcast given in Hebrew: www.youtube.com...

I tried getting a thread going on this but first it was deleted, then it was closed. The moderators are adamant about shutting this thing down without allowing any real investigative research to take place in an orderly manner. Now we have to sift through 70+ pages of material concerning what they have labeled as a hoax.

Originally posted by DakmindAK
Please translate the following broadcast given in Hebrew: www.youtube.com...

As I mentioned in my OP (and in the thread which you started requesting a translation of that video), there is already a thread where various members of ATS have volunteered to translate material - see the thread here on ATS entitled “The UFO-Alien Applied Linguistics Registry” started and maintained by Scramjet76

That thread includes the following entry for members prepared to translate Hebrew:

Hebrew:
ZeroKnowledge - Send U2U - Last login: October 6, 2010

I hope highlighting that resource helps,

Isaac

Appreciate the help, thank you much.

Oh wow last login october 2010....

reply to post by IsaacKoi
Looking at the list, there's a notable absence of folklorists and an over-abundance of podiatrists. Despite a number of Google searches, I can't find any examples of podiatrists contributing to UFO research.

I'm a substance abuse counselor/program director at a residential rehab. If anyone's UFO encounter drives them to drink, they can send me a message..

in my opinion...a simple laymen...i would think a detailed investigation of the hundreds of witnesses to the "phoenix lights" mass sighting, would yield abundant correlated information. there have been a number of these mass sightings around the world, and the perspectives involving place, time, details, etc. of all the different witnesses should provide enough evidence to erase the phrases "tin hat", "crazies", "weirdos", "alien conspiracy nuts", etc. from the modern lexicon.
the fact that in present day media, these references are still used, gives weight to the existance of the very phenomena they portend to make light of.