About
We are a volunteer group of scholars conducting and promoting serious research into Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP) and related topics.
Our name
J. Allen Hynek, the well known scientific consultant to the US Air Force, once referred to the group of academics working on the UFO subject in secrecy or at least anonymity as “The Invisible College.” Jacques Vallee picked up this designation for the title of his book The Invisible College: What a Group of Scientists has Discovered about UFO Influences on the Human Race.
As the topic of UAP has gone increasingly mainstream in recent years, more and more scholars have begun to take the subject seriously, and to speak publicly about it – “The Invisible College” is gradually becoming visible.
Note: There have been other organizations in the past with the same name as ours. We are unaffiliated with anything posted prior to September of 2024.
Our team
Steven Brown, Ph.D.
Director
Steve is currently an Associate Professor of Teaching Philosophy at The Ohio State University, but his path through academia has been somewhat non-traditional. In addition to his regular teaching duties, he has had the privilege of working on several projects that attempt to bridge the gap between academic philosophy and the rest of the world. For a season, he served as Executive Director of the Maximin Project where he used contemporary data visualization and web development tools to promote principled and effective charitable giving. Afterwards he became Associate Director of OSU’s Center for Ethics and Human Values where he helped organize a broad range of events at the intersection of morality, politics, and society. He was also honored to participate in multiple efforts to increase access to arts programming and education inside Ohio prisons.
For a whole host of reasons, Steve believes that humanity is standing at a pivotal crossroads, with opportunities to completely rethink our life on Earth. As the leader of the Visible College, Steve’s mission is to spotlight these pressing issues and bring together scholars from around the world to apply their expertise in addressing them.
Jed Verity, Ph.D.
Associate Director
Jed received his Ph.D. in Tibetan Buddhism from the University of Virginia (UVa). From 2012-2014, he served as the Director of Contemplative Technologies at UVa’s Contemplative Sciences Center, researching brain-computer interface (BCI) technologies and working to establish a cutting edge curriculum for teaching contemplative values and practices.
In 2014, Jed left to start Sentient Applications, a consulting organization that sought to work on comparable issues in the private sector. Sentient soon joined forces with a team of data scientists to form Timbr, which contracted with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), and the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA). In 2016, Timbr was acquired by DigitalGlobe, a satellite company based in Westminster, CO (soon to become part of Maxar Technologies). Since 2019, Jed has worked at GitHub, Inc.