National UFO Reporting Center - Information and Policies
The National UFO Reporting Center was founded in 1974 by noted UFO investigator Robert J. Gribble. The Center’s primary function over the past five decades has been to receive, record, and to the greatest degree possible, corroborate and document reports from individuals who have been witness to unusual, possibly UFO-related events. Throughout its history, the Center has processed over 170,000 reports, and has distributed its information to thousands of individuals.
The principal means used by the Center to receive sighting reports is this website, which has operated continuously since 1995. Prior to that period, the telephone hotline and the U.S. mail were the primary means of taking reports.
The Center’s independence from all other UFO related organizations, combined with its long standing policy of guaranteed anonymity to callers, has served to make it perhaps the most popular and widely accepted national UFO reporting facility anywhere. The website and hotline are well known by law enforcement agencies, FAA ARTCC’s and flight service stations, National Weather Services offices, military facilities, NASA, and many 911 emergency dispatch centers all across the United States and in many parts of Canada. Those entities routinely direct the calls they receive regarding possible UFO sightings to the Center.
One of the Center’s policies, which distinguishes its operations from most other UFO organizations, is that it makes available to the public all of its data in summary form. Detailed information is made available to experienced UFO investigators.
The National UFO Reporting Center is a non profit Washington State corporation.
Center Director - Peter Davenport
Peter Davenport has been director of the National UFO Reporting Center since 1994. He has also served as the director of investigations for the Washington Chapter of the Mutual UFO Network. He often presents lectures on specific UFO cases, most notably the Phoenix Lights sighting.
Peter has had an active interest in the UFO phenomenon from his early boyhood. He experienced his first UFO sighting over the St. Louis municipal airport in the summer of 1954, and he investigated his first UFO case during the summer of 1965 in Exeter, New Hampshire. He has also been witness to several subsequent anomalous events, possibly UFO related, including a dramatic sighting over Baja California in February 1990, and several nighttime sightings over Washington State during 1992.
Peter received his undergraduate education at Stanford University in California, where he earned bachelor’s degrees in both Russian and biology, as well as a translator’s certificate in Russian translation. His graduate education was completed at the University of Washington in Seattle, where he earned an M.S. degree in the genetics and biochemistry of fish from the College of Fisheries, as well as an M.B.A. degree in finance and international business from the Graduate School of Business.
Peter has worked as a college instructor, a commercial fisherman, a Russian translator in the Soviet Union, a fisheries observer aboard Soviet fishing vessels, a flight instructor, and a businessman. Peter was the founding president of a Seattle-based biotechnology company, which currently employs over 300 scientists and technicians. In 1986, Peter was a candidate for the Washington State legislature, and in 1992, he was a candidate for the U. S. House of Representatives.
email: director@ufocenter.com
CTO - Christian Stepien
Christian Stepien has had a life long interest in UFOs and is an avid student of the phenomenon. Since 1995, he has served as the developer of the National UFO Reporting Center web site, as well as the Center’s database and reporting software. He has also been featured in news articles, blogs, podcasts and television interviews about UFO’s and the Center’s operations.
Christian holds a Master’s Degree in Electrical Engineering from Case Western Reserve University. He began his professional career with General Electric in 1981, where he worked in areas including robotics, voice recognition, and vision systems. In 2002 he launched Experlogix, a software company focused on advanced configuration technology for sales and manufacturing of complex products. He sold Experlogix in 2019, and today serves in an advisory role on its board of directors.
email: webmaster@ufocenter.com