Northwestern University astronomer hired by the Air Force as scientific consultant to Project Blue Book from 1952-1969. Initially a debunker, he became a believer after reviewing thousands of cases and coined the 'close encounter' classification system — which Steven Spielberg named his 1977 film after. Spielberg brought Hynek in as technical consultant for Close Encounters of the Third Kind; Hynek has a cameo in the final scene. The film featured a bone-density hand scanner nearly identical to the security device Bob Lazar later described at S-4 — raising the question of whether Hynek fed classified technology details to Spielberg. After 17 years with government clearance access to UFO investigations, Hynek founded the Center for UFO Studies (CUFOS) and spent his remaining years advocating for serious scientific study of the phenomenon.
Credentials
-Professor of Astronomy, Northwestern University
-Scientific Advisor, Project Blue Book (1948-1969)
-Created Close Encounter classification system
-Technical consultant, Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)