FigureJ. Allen Hynek (1910–1986)
aka J. Allen Hynek · Hynek · Josef Allen Hynek · Allen Hynek
Northwestern University astronomy professor; the U.S. Air Force's scientific consultant on Projects Sign, Grudge, and Blue Book (1947–1969); coined the "Close Encounters" classification; founded the Center for UFO Studies (CUFOS) in 1973.
What's documented
Northwestern University astronomy chair and U.S. Air Force scientific consultant on Projects Sign (1947–49), Grudge (1949–51), and Blue Book (1952–69). Hynek began as a skeptic — his initial role was to provide prosaic explanations for sighting reports — and over twenty-two years inside the program shifted publicly to advocate for serious study. He coined the now-canonical Close Encounter classification (CE-1 visual, CE-2 physical effect, CE-3 entity) in The UFO Experience: A Scientific Inquiry (1972). After Blue Book closed in December 1969 with the Condon Report’s negative finding, Hynek founded the Center for UFO Studies (CUFOS) in 1973 in Evanston, Illinois, where his archive still resides. Steven Spielberg cast him in a brief cameo at the end of Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) — the bearded scientist watching the mothership land is Hynek himself.