Kevin Knuth

UAlbany physicist and former NASA Ames scientist whose 2019 paper estimated UAP accelerations and who joined the UAP Science Advisory Council in 2026.

Current role: Professor of Physics, University at Albany (SUNY); Editor-in-Chief, Entropy; member of UAlbany Project X (UAPx); member of the UAP Science Advisory Council (physics and instrumentation)

Former roles:

Research Scientist, Intelligent Systems Division, NASA Ames Research Center (2001–2005)

Background

Kevin Knuth is a professor of physics at the University at Albany, SUNY, and has edited the journal Entropy since 2012. He holds a PhD in physics from the University of Minnesota (1995) and worked as a research scientist in NASA Ames's Intelligent Systems Division from 2001 to 2005. His research is in information physics and Bayesian data analysis, with applications in astrophysics. Since 2019 he has published on UAP: a paper estimating the accelerations implied by the 2004 Nimitz encounters, a 2025 multi-author review of the field and, in 2026, a critique of claimed technosignatures in 1950s photographic plates. He is part of UAlbany Project X, the endowed UAP programme announced in November 2025. He was not among the 12 council members DefenseScoop listed on 17 June 2026. Avi Loeb's later roster listed him for physics and instrumentation, and an August 2026 WAMC interview described him as recently named to the council. The council, announced by Loeb and reported by DefenseScoop, is advisory only: it works from unclassified data, its members hold no clearances, and it has no published charter or budget.

On the record

2026-08-05 – WAMC Vox Pop – interview on UAP research. The programme notes he "has recently been named to Avi Loeb's UAP Science Advisory Council". WAMC · Loeb's roster update on Medium
2026-07 – SCU 9th Annual Conference, Toronto (24–26 July) – talk "Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP): Energy and Power — How Anomalous is Anomalous?" SCU programme
2026-01-29 – arXiv, accepted in Publications of the Astronomical Society of Australia – co-author with Watters, Dominé, Little, Pratt and Szenher of a critique of the Villarroel-linked VASCO plate studies. The abstract states that "the assumption of a spatially uniform-random background distribution of features, essential to the Earth shadow analysis, is shown to be false". arXiv
2025-12-02 – The Debrief – "We've been working on studying UAP scientifically for about seven years now". The Debrief
2025-11-05 – UAlbany, on the Gorman endowment – "Like the public, we in the research community are also fascinated by what else or who else is potentially in the universe." UAlbany
2025-06-04 – UAlbany release on the journal papers – "studying and understanding these phenomena is of great and urgent importance." UAlbany
2025-01-27 – arXiv, later Progress in Aerospace Sciences – lead author of "The New Science of Unidentified Aerospace-Undersea Phenomena (UAP)", a review with about 139 co-authors including Nolan, Vallée, Skafish and Graves: "We dispel the common misconception that UAPs are an American phenomenon [...]" arXiv
2019-09-25 – Entropy 21(10), 939, with Robert Powell and Peter Reali of SCU – "Estimated accelerations range from almost 100g to 1000s of gs" for the 2004 Nimitz encounters, and "The extreme estimated flight characteristics reveal that these observations are either fabricated or seriously in error [...]" PMC · MDPI

Timeline of involvement

2019-09-25 – Entropy paper on UAP flight characteristics
2021-07 – UAPx field expedition with Szydagis and Levy
2025-01-27 – lead author on the "New Science of UAP" review
2025-11-05 – UAlbany Project X launched with the Gorman endowment
2026-01-29 – co-authors the critique of the VASCO plate studies
2026-07 – speaks at the SCU conference in Toronto
2026-08-05 – described as newly named to the UAP Science Advisory Council

Relevant links

Part of the Key People in Disclosure series. Verified 2026-10-10. Spotted an error? Reach out.