Frank Press
From the UAP Encyclopedia, the open encyclopedia of UFO and UAP history · 👤 Person
Contents 5
.jpg)
| Type | Person |
|---|---|
| On the Timeline | 1 event, 1977 |
Frank Press (4 December 1924 – 29 January 2020) was an American geophysicist and seismologist who served as science adviser to President Jimmy Carter and later as president of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences. In 1977 he asked NASA whether it should take up the study of UFOs, an exchange that ended with NASA declining.[1][2]
Scientific career
Press was born in New York City. Starting as an oceanographer, he became a leading seismologist, directing the Seismological Laboratory at the California Institute of Technology from 1957 to 1965 and heading the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology from 1965 to 1976.[1]
Carter's science adviser
From 1977 to 1981 Press was Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy and science adviser to President Carter. In mid-1977 Press wrote to NASA Administrator Robert Frosch suggesting that NASA handle UFO correspondence from the public and consider whether it should set up a small research effort. NASA leaders were reluctant, and on 21 December 1977 Frosch replied that NASA would keep answering UFO mail but would not open an investigation, though it would examine physical evidence if credible material were presented.[2][3]
National Academy of Sciences
Press was president of the National Academy of Sciences from 1981 to 1993. He died in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, in 2020, aged 95.[1]
On the UAP Timeline
- Carter request and NASA's UFO decision (1977) (13 December 1977) — A NASA safety chief writes that a possible UFO fragment was studied at Los Alamos.
References
- Frank Press — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- David Clarke, "'Fraught with perils'", Substack · drclarke.substack.com · archived copy
- NASA correspondence on UFOs (1977), Department of Defense FOIA Reading Room · esd.whs.mil · archived copy
This page was last edited on 29 October 2026. Articles are written in our own words from the sources listed under References; disputed claims are attributed to the people who made them.
No discussion yet.