Las Vegas: National Institute for Discovery Science founded
Real-estate developer Robert Bigelow established the National Institute for Discovery Science in Las Vegas, Nevada, in December 1995 to investigate fringe sciences, particularly ufology. The institute held its first meeting, hired key staff, and formed a scientific advisory board.
Background
Founding and Purpose
In December 1995 the property entrepreneur Robert Bigelow founded the National Institute for Discovery Science (NIDS) in Las Vegas, Nevada. The institute aimed at serious investigation of fringe science and paranormal phenomena, with an emphasis on ufology. The first organisational meeting took place that same month.
Personnel and Structure
Bigelow engaged the retired US Army colonel John B. Alexander part-time and the biochemist Colm Kelleher as deputy director. Alexander assembled a scientific advisory board that included the ufologist Jacques Vallée, the parapsychologist Harold E. Puthoff, the astronaut Edgar Mitchell, the mathematician Gian-Carlo Rota, the physicists O'Dean Judd and Johndale Solem, the astronaut and senator Harrison Schmitt, the psychologist Albert Harrison, and Christopher (Kit) Green as chairman. NIDS was based in a two-storey building near the Las Vegas Strip and ran a 24-hour UFO hotline.
Activities and Equipment
Staff were dispatched by jet to UFO sightings and cattle mutilation cases. The teams used high-grade instruments to measure electromagnetic anomalies, radiation, infrared, and spectrometry. The institute was dissolved in 2004.