About the Author

Robert Sheaffer is a writer with a lifelong interest in astronomy and the question of life on other worlds. He is one of the leading skeptical investigators of UFOs, a founding member of the UFO Subcommittee of the well-known Committee for Skeptical Inquiry ( formerly CSICOP) . He is also a founding director and past Chairman of the Bay Area Skeptics, a local skeptics' group in the San Francisco Bay area. Mr. Sheaffer is the author of UFO Sightings (Prometheus Books, 1998), The Making of the Messiah (Prometheus Books, 1991), and has appeared on many radio and TV programs. His writings and reviews have appeared in such diverse publications as OMNI, Scientific American, Spaceflight, Astronomy, The Humanist, Free Inquiry, Reason, and others. He is a regular columnist for The Skeptical Inquirer. He is a contributor to the book Extraterrestrials - Where Are They? (Pergamon Press, Hart and Zuckerman, editors), which Science magazine called "one of the most interesting and important of the decade." He has written the article on UFOs for Prometheus Book's Encyclopedia of the Paranormal, as well as for the Funk and Wagnalls Encyclopedia. He has been an invited speaker at the Smithsonian UFO Symposium in Washington, DC, at the National UFO Conferences held in New York City and in Phoenix, as well as at the First World Skeptics' Congress in Buffalo, New York. Mr. Sheaffer lives near San Diego, California. He has worked as a data communications engineer in the Silicon Valley, and sings in professional opera productions. His website is www.debunker.com, and his Blog is www.BadUFOs.com .