Harvard professor known for controversial alien theories to lead White House UFO council

Theory Briefing

• Avi Loeb, who argued the interstellar object Oumuamua was alien-made, moves from fringe-adjacent theorist to official White House scientific adviser.
• His appointment puts a researcher whose alien claims most peers reject at the center of U.S. government UFO policy.
• The council's mandate sits at the tension between rigorous scientific skepticism and the possibility that anomalous phenomena deserve serious institutional attention.
• Loeb has long argued mainstream science dismisses extraterrestrial hypotheses too quickly — now he holds a formal platform to act on that belief.