- Center for UFO Studies
Infobox Company
company_name = Center for UFO Studies
(CUFOS)
company_
company_type =
foundation =1973
location = Chicago,Illinois
key_people = Dr. J. Allen Hynek, Founder
industry =
products =
revenue =
operating_income =
net_income =
num_employees =
parent =
subsid =
homepage = [http://www.cufos.org cufos.org]
footnotes =The Center for UFO Studies (CUFOS) is a privately-fundedunidentified flying object (UFO ) research group. It was founded in 1973 by Dr. J. Allen Hynek, the Chairman of the Department ofAstronomy atNorthwestern University inIllinois .Dr. Hynek was also a top scientific consultant for
Project Blue Book , the US Air Force's official study of the UFO mystery from 1948 to 1969. Although Dr. 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 downProject Blue Book in 1969, Dr. Hynek decided to establish his own organization to continue to study UFO reports in a scientific and unbiased manner.Started in Evanston,
Illinois , but now based inChicago , 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 asNICAP , one of the most popular and credible UFO research groups of the 1950s and 1960s. Following Dr. Hynek's death in 1986, CUFOS was renamed the J. Allen Hynek Center for UFO Studies in his honor. The current Scientific Director of CUFOS is Dr. Mark Rodeghier, who holds a masters inAstrophysics fromUniversity of Sussex , and a Doctorate inSociology from the University of Illinois. Prominent ufologists who have served on the CUFOS Board of Directors areJerome Clark , an award-winning UFO historian and author of the "UFO Encyclopedia"; Dr. Michael Swords, a retired history professor fromWestern Michigan University ; and Dr.Thomas E. Bullard , afolklorist atIndiana University .References
External links
* [http://www.cufos.org Center for UFO Studies Official Website]
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