Researchers & Affiliates
Keith Basterfield
Fascinated by the UFO phenomenon since 1968, Keith has been, over the years, a field investigator for the (former) US-based Aerial Phenomenon Research Organisation (APRO); a joint co-ordinator for the Australian Centre for UFO Studies (ACUFOS); and the Research Director for the (former) UFO Research Australia (UFORA). In addition, he spent several years as the Continental Director for Australasia for the US-based Mutual UFO Network (MUFON), as well as having had a lengthy association with UFO Research South Australia.
Between 1994 and 1997 Keith founded and ran the Australian UFO Abduction Study Centre, exploring the various facets of the UFO abduction phenomenon, particularly in Australia. Between 2003-2008, he led an Adelaide, South Australia, based team of researchers in mining the National Archives of Australia for material on UFOs. Much previously unknown documentation was uncovered, and details published. Since 2008 he has pursued independent research into a variety of aspects of the phenomenon.
Keith’s research on aspects of the phenomena ranging from orange lights in the sky, to the after effects of UFO abductions, has appeared in such places as the (former) APRO Bulletin USA) MUFON UFO Journal (USA) Magonia (UK) the International UFO Reporter (USA) the Journal of UFO Studies (USA) the prestigious psychology journal Professional Psychology: Research and Practice (USA) as well as numerous Australian and European UFO journals. Keith’s first book appeared in 1981 with a revised edition in 1997 titled “UFOs: A report on Australian encounters.” His published work has featured in-depth case studies; catalogues of various classes of events, and discussion on the cause(s) of the UFO phenomenon.
Keith has lectured/presented locally in South Australia; nationally in a variety of locations, and in the United States. He has facilitated workshops and networking meetings; guided research teams and undertaken major investigations.
Over the years, his research interests have included Australian “Angel Hair” falls; paranormal aspects of the UFO phenomenon; personality aspects of Australian abductees; the implant motif in UFO abductions; abductees’ belief in, and experiences of, the paranormal; the involvement of sleep paralysis in the UFO phenomenon; and continuing examination of Australian Government files on UFOs.
Since 2009, he has contributed to a blog focusing on topics such as an exploration of the work of Las Vegas businessman Robert Bigelow’s National Institute for Discovery Science (NIDS) and Bigelow Advanced Aerospace Space Studies (BAASS) the U.S. Navy’s interest in UAP; and the work of various global UAP researchers.
ufos-scientificresearch.blogspot.com
Paul Dean
Paul Dean is an Australian researcher who focuses on government and military involvement and response to the so-called UFO phenomena. Working alone for 20 years, Paul became an expert in regards to so-called "UFO files,” Six years ago he began tackling the problem directly, and became instrumental in seeing that the Australian government release hitherto classified files from the Royal Australian Air Force, Air Services Australia, the Australian Transport Safety Bureau, and the National Archives of Australia. He works extensively with Australian based researcher Keith Basterfield on UFO case analysis and the preservation of UFO-related records.
Paul and his team use the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) to obtain records, and is hot on the trail of 100s of never-before-seen classified military files. Recent discoveries include UFO sighting reports created during the Vietnam War, and administrative records related to a pair of highly classified "UFO tracking" programs which were ran by the US Army and US Air Force during America's involvement in Vietnam. Other fresh finds include Federal Bureau of Investigation records related to the interrogation of UFO researchers in the 1970's, and a current Federal Aviation Administration system for logging military intercepts of unknown objects in America's airspace.
Paul has also begun requesting UFO records from the USAF's Air Force Space Command, which will include files from the 21st Space Wing and the vital Joint Functional Component Centre for Space at Vandenburg Air Force Base. Working on a daily basis with Boston-based archivist and historian Barry Greenwood, Paul believes there are likely hundreds of thousands of UFO records still held by elements of the US government, and works tirelessly to source their location and availability status. All-in-all, Paul has acquired a total of 240,000 pages of UFO-related government and military records from around the world, and tens of millions of pages of non-government UFO records, including books, newsletters, monographs, newspaper articles, case studies, letters, and magazine articles.
ufos-documenting-the-evidence.blogspot.com
MUFON
MUFON is the largest UFO organization in the world. It was formed in 1969 when Project Blue Book had closed down due to the conclusion of the infamous Condon Report. MUFON's goals are to investigate UFO sightings and collect datas into our Case Management System (CMS) for use by researchers worldwide. Promote research on UFOs to discover the true nature of the phenomenon and finally to educate the public on the UFO phenomenon and its potential impact on society.
MUFON uses the scientific method to investigate UFO's by in the first instance postulating the null hypothesis that all unknown objects sighted in the sky have prosaic explanations. After gathering the data and analysing the evidence and witness accounts, we sometimes need to accept the null hypothesis 2- 3 percent of the time that the object sighted, videoed or photographed, cannot be explained in prosaic terms.
MUFON has a corporate office with full-time staff serving the public and members alike. It has a board of directors and publishes a monthly UFO Journal. MUFON has annual international conferences, and has a membership of over 4000, and a computerized CMS with over 100,000 logged UFO reports. It has a structured Field Investigator Program with more than 600 active field investigators, a trained underwater dive team, its own television show called HANGAR 1, and its own channel MUFON TV.
Roger Stankovic
Roger began investigating UFO’s independently in 1987, as one of the first civilians to have notified Wright Patterson AFB about the then, recently leaked, MJ12 documents, and how they were linked to the Roswell incident, implying that remains of a crashed spacecraft and bodies of deceased extraterrestrial biological entities were allegedly kept there. His passion for Ufology has now spanned over four decades, piqued by a personal UFO sighting on his family’s rural property in the western suburbs of Sydney. This event changed his perception and outlook of the world at an early age.
With a passion for discussing topics in Ufology, he can be heard in various podcasts (“Occam’s Razor,” New Zealand, What I’m Obsessed with Now”, “Chant Hanna Show”, USA, The Northern Vibe, QLD) and on Radio (ABC Sydney Overnights with Rod Quinn). Roger has also delivered seminars with UFO research NSW (UFOR NSW) and in a feature article in the 7 News; “Australia’s SECRET UFO HISTORY: Abductions, disappearances and strange backyard visits.”
He joined the Aerial Phenomena Research Organization (APRO) in the 1980’s, and MUFON in 2015 as a field investigator. Taking on the role of National Director of MUFON Australia and New Zealand shortly after, Roger has investigated over two hundred UFO reports across Australia and New Zealand. Apart from MUFON activities, he continued his own personal research interests in the field including the Eric Davis / Admiral Wilson notes, Roswell incident in association with James Rigney and the late Stanton Friedman respectively, cattle mutilations in Australia in association with a retired veterinarian and several other witnesses and the Marilyn Monroe, Dorothy Kilgallen murder-UFO connection in association with former criminal defense attorney from the USA, Mark Shaw, among other interests.
Roger is a qualified neuroscientist who obtained his doctorate degree from the University of Sydney in 2006. He is currently a lecturer in Biology, Microscopy, and Statistics at Technical & Further Education, Ultimo, Sydney. His primary role as a neuroscientist in the Department of Pathology at the University of Sydney lasted over fifteen years, during which time he developed and operated the Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease surveillance unit for NSW, and has published several scientific papers on motor neuron disease and on image analysis applications in pathology. He has a keen interest in astronomy and cosmology and is a semiprofessional musician.
Bill Chalker
Intrigued by UFO reports since about 1966, when his home town of Grafton, in New South Wales (NSW), Australia, became the focus of UFO activity that attracted national headlines, Bill began undertaking deeper research and investigations from 1969, when his home region of northern NSW again became the focus of UFO reports. The 1969 publication of the notorious Condon Report, which concluded that there was nothing of scientific value in studying UFOs, had a different effect on Bill. Unlike most, he examined the report and realised there was a massive disconnection between the conclusions and the actual case studies. More than a third of their cases were unexplained. This set Bill on a deeper investigation of the UFO enigma.
He joined the American based APRO (Aerial Phenomena Research Organisation) group, which confirmed his growing awareness of the global dimensions of the UFO mystery. He would eventually become their Australian representative. He also joined the US MUFON organisation, serving as their NSW representative for a number of years.
Bill also joined the Sydney based UFO Investigation Centre (UFOIC) as a country member and investigator.
Between 1971 and 1974 while studying at the University of New England (NSW), Bill undertook investigations in significant localised UFO flap areas, such as Kempsey, Tyringham on the Dorrigo plateau, Mount Butler near Armidale and the northern rivers area of NSW. He became a co-ordinator of UFOIC soon after moving to Sydney in 1975. He helped transition UFOIC to a low profile networking group, to better enable in depth research and investigations, and continues coordinating UFOIC activity and compiling the group history and drawing together case data and material gathered over more than 6 decades.
Trained in science with a university honours degree majoring in Chemistry and mathematics Bill has had decades of experience in chemistry, laboratory management and quality assurance. That extensive background is reflected in the strong focus he brings to particular areas of UFO research interest, which include physical evidence (such as UFO landing “physical traces” and biological evidence/DNA related investigations), historical UFO events (pre-1947), and official investigations.
Bill’s research has been extensively published in such diverse publications as FSR (Flying Saucer Review – his first FSR piece appearing in 1973), the MUFON UFO Journal, the APRO Bulletin, IUR (International UFO Reporter), ACOS Bulletin, ACUFOS Journal, UFORAN (UFO Research Australia Newsletter) magazine, the Australasian Ufologist, Hard Evidence, Fate, Reader’s Digest, Omega Science Digest, Independent Monthly, Rolling Stone, Australian Penthouse, Fortean Times, and New Dawn. Bill was a contributing editor to the Chicago based IUR, the publication of Allen Hynek’s Center for UFO Studies.
Bill has written long running columns in the Ufologist magazine (“UFO History Keys” (2006 to 2011) which examine the UFO subject from a historical perspective, and “Science and the UFO controversy” (from 2011 to 2018)) and the UK e-magazine “UFO Truth” (“The OZ Files” from 2013 to now ongoing).
Some of Bill’s contributions include:
A focus of UFO landing “physical trace cases” – see for example his chapter “Physical Traces” in the 1988 book “UFOs 1947 1947-1987 – the 40-year search for an explanation”.
Examination of early pre-1947 cases, including two striking cases - 1868 (a contact case from Parramatta, NSW) and a bizarre “mothman” style UFO milieu in 1927 (at Fernvale, NSW) – see for example on the web Bill’s document: Early Australian Historical Encounters and his 2018 UFO Encyclopedia contributions: “Airship Sightings in New Zealand/Australia” and “Fernvale Episode.”
Research into official investigations in Australia. During 1982 to 1984 he undertook a comprehensive review of official files at the Australian Department of Defence in Canberra, providing at that time an unprecedented level of “disclosure” of official files to the wider UFO research and public community. See for example Bill’s “UFO Sub Rosa Down Under” document on the web since 1999 and “The Australian Military and the Official Government Response” chapter in the 2012 book “UFOs and Government.”
Focus on alien abduction research since the 1970s, undertaking research with psychologists during the 1980s, contributing to researching and documenting many such cases, and focused since 1999 on the biochemical DNA dimensions of this controversial area, particularly with his breakthrough research on the controversial “alien hair” from Peter Khoury’s abduction experiences in Sydney Australia. This research has led to a focus of “the alien DNA paradigm” – an extraordinary opportunity to get to the heart of the alien abduction mystery.
Bill has also focused on the Asian UFO experience, in particular, the fascinating Chinese UFO scene, as an effective way of validating the global reality of the UFO experience. Bill has been to China 3 times since 2002, creating excellent research ties with Chinese UFO researchers and lecturing there at the Dalian UFO conference in 2005 and at universities in Kunming and Beijing in 2006. During 2006 he was able to research UFO and mystery light phenomena in Thailand, particularly focusing on the fascinating Naga light festival near Nong Khai where strange lights come out of the Mekong River. During October 2006 he was able to capture the phenomenon on video.
Bill has maintained a long time focus on so-called UFO “solid light” cases. See for example his article “UFOs & the solid Light Enigma”, New Dawn Special Issue Vol 13 No 1 (2019).
Bill has had two commercial books published – “The OZ Files – the Australian UFO story” by Duffy & Snellgrove Sydney Australia in 1996 and “Hair of the Alien – DNA and other forensic Evidence of Alien Abduction” by Paraview Pocket Books, a division of Simon & Schuster, New York, USA in 2005. He was the Australian chapter author of the UFO History Group’s major study “UFOs and Government” (2012) and Australian content author for all 3 editions (a total of 7 volumes from 1990 to 2018) of Jerome Clark’s “The UFO Encyclopedia” – the latest in 2 volumes (2018) and in a 7-part series (2021).
Since 2005 he has maintained a blog – “The OZ Files” – covering research, investigation and commentary on the UFO/UAP subject, and includes links to his other blogs addressing historical (pre-1947) UFO reports in Australia, science & the UFO controversy, the “alien DNA paradigm”, UFOIC history & activities and broader UFO historical focuses, and links to many of Bill’s article and documents via AUFORN and Project 1947.
http://theozfiles.blogspot.com
Richard Dolan:
Richard Dolan is among the world's leading UFO researchers, historians, and publishers. He has written four groundbreaking books. These include two volumes of history, UFOs and the National Security State, an analysis of the future, A.D. ...
Ross Coulthart:
Ross Coulthart is an Australian investigative journalist and author who has also worked in public relations. He is an advocate for the idea that governments are covering up knowledge of UFOs and alien visitations.
David Paulides:
David Paulides is known for Missing 411: The U.F.O. Connection (2022), Missing 411: The Hunted (2019) and Missing 411 (2016).
Jeremy Corbell:
Jeremy Kenyon Lockyer Corbell is an American contemporary artist, filmmaker and ufologist based in Los Angeles, California. Initially gaining prominence as a visual artist, by the late 2010s Corbell became a well known figure in the UFO community, producing documentary films and podcasts on the subject.