Bio: Bruce studied physics at Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Worcester, Mass (B.S. in physics) and then at The American University, Washington, DC (M.S. and Ph. D. in physics). In 1972 commenced his long career at the Naval Surface Warfare Center. He has worked on optical data processing, generation of underwater sound with lasers and various aspects of the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) and Ballistic Missile Defense (BMD) using high power lasers. Bruce Maccabee has been active in UFO research since late 1960s when he joined the National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena (NICAP) and was active in research and investigation for NICAP until its demise in 1980. He became a member of MUFON in 1975 and was subequently appointed to the position of state Director for Maryland, a position he still holds. In 1979 he was instrumental in establishing the Fund for UFO Research and was the chairman for the about 13 years. He presently serves on the National Board of the Fund. Dr. Maccabee is the author or coauthor of about three dozen technical articles and more than a hundred UFO articles over the last 25 years, including many which appeared in the MUFON Journal and MUFON Symposium proceedings. He wrote the last chapter of “The Gulf Breeze Sightings” by Edward and Frances Walters (Morrow, 1990). He wrote the UFO history chapter of the book “UFOs: Zeugen und Zeichen,” published in Germany in 1995. He is co-author with Edward Walters of “UFOs Are Real, Here’s The Proof,” (Avon Books, 1997), he is the author of “The UFO/FBI Connection” (Llewellyn Books, May, 2000) and he is the author of novel, “Abduction in My Life,” (November, 2000). He is listed in Who’s Who in Technology Today and American Men and Women of Science an he has appeared on numerous radio and TV shows and documentaries.

Presenting: Friday February 24, 2012: 2:30 – 3:45 PM

Talk: The Legacy of the Year of the UFO

The large number of sightings during the summer of 1952 forced the U.S. Air Force to publicly react in order to damp down what seemed to be a sort of “saucer fever” that swept the land. At a press conference the head of air force intelligence admitted that there were credible reports of “relatively incredible things,” but that, as far as he was concerned, there was no threat to the U.S., there was no evidence of unknown technology, and recent sightings in Washington, DC, were a “weather phenomenon.” From that point on the news media and the scientific community almost uniformly treated UFO sightings as being “silly season” phenomena. This treatment has hampered scientific UFO research but it seems that we are finally breaking through this tradition. Optical physicist Dr. Bruce Maccabee is one of the world’s leading scientific ufologists.