Peter Skafish

Sociocultural anthropologist who co-founded the Sol Foundation with Garry Nolan in 2023 and joined the UAP Science Advisory Council in June 2026.

Current role: Co-founder and Executive Director, Sol Foundation; member of the UAP Science Advisory Council (anthropology)

Former roles:

Visiting anthropologist, Harvard University (described as recent in a 2026 Sol Foundation statement)
Faculty and research positions at UC Berkeley, the Collège de France, McGill University and Bauhaus-University Weimar
Editor-in-chief, Qui Parle

Background

Peter Skafish is a sociocultural anthropologist with a PhD from the University of California, Berkeley. He has held faculty and research posts in the United States, France, Canada and Germany, including UC Berkeley, the Collège de France, McGill University and Bauhaus-University Weimar, and his academic work sits between anthropology and philosophy. He wrote Rough Metaphysics, co-edited Comparative Metaphysics and translated Eduardo Viveiros de Castro's Cannibal Metaphysics. In August 2023 he co-founded the Sol Foundation with Garry Nolan, a research institute and policy think tank on UAP, where he is Executive Director. His stated research now includes how nonhuman beings that might design UAP could think, and a book on US government UAP data. In June 2026 Avi Loeb named him to the UAP Science Advisory Council as its anthropologist, as reported by DefenseScoop. The council is advisory only: it works from unclassified data, its members hold no clearances, and it has no published charter or budget.

On the record

2026-08-29 – Liberation Times – interviewed Clive Lewis MP for the Sol Foundation about the UK's Five Eyes UAP cooperation and whether written parliamentary answers had misled him. Skafish, framing his question: "I believe one or two of your questions concerned whether the United Kingdom was working with other Five Eyes governments [...]" Liberation Times
2026-06-13 – named to the UAP Science Advisory Council (anthropology) in Avi Loeb's announcement. DefenseScoop · Loeb roster on X
2026-05 – Sol Foundation leadership statement with Nolan and Gallaudet on the fourth PURSUE tranche – "The American people have a right to know what their government does in this area." The statement adds: "we are calling on Congress to pass the UAP Disclosure Act". Sol Foundation
2025-10-25 – Sol Foundation Symposium, Lake Maggiore, Italy – spoke in the afternoon session "Understanding UAP and 'NHI'". Agenda · Event page
2025-01-27 – arXiv preprint, later in Progress in Aerospace Sciences – co-author on the Knuth-led review "The New Science of Unidentified Aerospace-Undersea Phenomena (UAP)". arXiv
2024-02-12 – The Debrief – on the Sol Foundation's approach to witnesses: "It's gonna be about the testimony that human beings have to offer about this" and "We need to listen to people". The Debrief
2023-08-15 – Sol Foundation launch – listed as a founder of the new think tank. Launch announcement

Responses and criticism

The UAP Science Advisory Council has no published charter or Federal Register notice and no budget, by the chair's own account. Crimson · The Sentinel

Timeline of involvement

2023-08-15 – co-founds the Sol Foundation with Garry Nolan
2023-11-17 – Sol Foundation's inaugural symposium at Stanford
2024-02-12 – speaks to The Debrief about Sol's research priorities
2025-01-27 – co-author on the "New Science of UAP" review
2025-10-25 – speaks at the Sol Foundation Symposium in Italy
2026-05 – co-signs the Sol leadership statement on PURSUE
2026-06-13 – named to the UAP Science Advisory Council
2026-08-29 – his interview with Clive Lewis MP reported by Liberation Times

Relevant links

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