H. P. Robertson

Howard Percy Robertson was an American mathematical physicist at Princeton and the California Institute of Technology. In cosmology he is known for the Robertson-Walker metric, a basic description of an expanding universe, and for work on general relativity and quantum mechanics.

During World War II he worked in scientific intelligence, including interrogating German scientists, and after the war he advised the Defense Department and NATO.

In January 1953, after the 1952 wave of sightings, the CIA asked him to chair its Scientific Advisory Panel on Unidentified Flying Objects, which became known as the Robertson Panel. Meeting from January 14 to 17, the panel reviewed Air Force cases and films and concluded there was no evidence of a direct threat to national security or of extraterrestrial objects. It recommended a public education effort to reduce public interest in saucers, a recommendation later critics described as debunking. Robertson died in 1961 after a car accident.