The Robertson Panel was a scientific committee which met in January 1953. The Panel arose from a recommendation to the Intelligence Advisory Committee (IAC) in December 1952 from a Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) review of the U.S. Air Force investigation into Unidentified Flying Objects, project Blue Book. The CIA review itself was in response to widespread reports of unidentified flying objects, especially in the Washington, D.C. area during the summer of 1952. The panel was briefed on U.S. military activities and intelligence; hence the report was originally classified Secret. Later declassified, the Robertson Panel's report concluded that UFOs were not a direct threat to national security, but could pose an indirect threat by overwhelming standard military communications due to public interest in the subject. Most UFO reports, they concluded, could be explained as misidentification of mundane aerial objects, and the remaining minority could, in all likelihood, be similarly explained with further study. The Robertson Panel recommended that a public education campaign should be undertaken in order to reduce public interest in the subject, minimising the risk of swamping Air Defence systems with reports at critical times, and that civilian UFO groups should be monitored. The Robertson Panel’s report was contained within a larger internal CIA report by F C Durant, a CIA officer who served as Secretary to the Panel, which summarises the activities of the panel and its conclusions. This wider document is commonly referred to as the Durant Report.

Dr. Josef Allen Hynek (May 1, 1910 – April 27, 1986) was a United States astronomer, professor, and ufologist. He is perhaps best remembered for his UFO research. Hynek acted as scientific adviser to UFO studies undertaken by the U.S. Air Force under three consecutive names: Project Sign (1947–1949), Project Grudge (1949–1952), and Project Blue Book (1952 to 1969). For decades afterwards, he conducted his own independent UFO research, developing the Close Encounter classification system, and is widely considered the father of the concept of scientific analysis of both reports and, especially, trace evidence purportedly left by UFOs.

Hynek was born in Chicago to Czech parents. In 1931, Hynek received a B.S. from the University of Chicago. In 1935, he completed his Ph.D. in astrophysics at Yerkes Observatory. He joined the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Ohio State University in 1936. He specialized in the study of stellar evolution and in the identification of spectroscopic binaries.

Scott Thompson (born June 12, 1959) is a Canadian television actor and comedian, best known for his time as a member of the comedy troupe The Kids in the Hall.

Thompson, originally named John Scott Thompson after his uncle and later changed for the stage, was born in North Bay, Ontario and grew up in Brampton. He is the second oldest of five boys. He attended Brampton Centennial Secondary School and was a witness of the 1975 Centennial Secondary School massacre. He enrolled in York University but in his third year was asked to leave for being "disruptive". He joined the comedy troupe The Love Cats, where he met Mark McKinney.

In March 2009, Thompson was diagnosed with B-cell non-Hodgkins gastric lymphoma. He completed six rounds of chemotherapy and one month of radiation and is now cancer-free.

In 1984, he became a member of The Kids in the Hall. That troupe's series aired starting 1989 on the CBC in Canada and on HBO in the United States, but moved to CBS for the fourth and fifth seasons. Openly gay, Thompson became best-known on the show for his monologues as the "alpha queen" socialite Buddy Cole, as well as his appearances as Queen Elizabeth II. He also appeared regularly on The Larry Sanders Show and made numerous guest appearances on other television series, including Politically Incorrect, The Late Show, Late Night with Conan O'Brien, and Train 48. Thompson was also the host of a reality television program in Canada called My Fabulous Gay Wedding. Thompson defended Mordecai Richler's novel Cocksure in Canada Reads 2006.

Thomas G. McInerney (born March 15, 1937) is a retired United States Air Force Lieutenant General. He is a command pilot with more than 4,100 flying hours, including 407 combat missions (243 in O-1s as a forward air controller and 164 in F-4C's, D's and E's) during the Vietnam War. In addition to his Vietnam Service, the McInerney served overseas in NATO; Pacific Air Forces and as commander of 11th Air Force in Alaska. Currently, he is a Fox News contributor, and is a member of the Iran Policy Committee.

McInerney was born March 15, 1937, in Havre de Grace, Maryland, and graduated from Garden City (N.Y.) High School in 1955. He earned a bachelor of science degree from the United States Military Academy in 1959 and a master's degree in international relations from George Washington University in 1972. McInerney graduated from the Armed Forces Staff College in 1970 and from the National War College in 1973.

After graduating from the academy in June 1959, he was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the United States Army. He then joined the Air Force, and completed initial pilot training at Bartow Air Base, Florida, and Laredo Air Force Base, Texas, in November 1960. McInerney was assigned to Luke Air Force Base, Arizona, and later to Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada, for advanced gunnery training. His first operational assignment was in October 1961 with the 476th Tactical Fighter Squadron, flying F-104s at George Air Force Base, California. There he took part in the Berlin and Cuban crises in 1962, flying escort missions in the West Berlin Air Corridor and escort reconnaissance missions over Cuba during the Cuban Missile Crisis. In April 1963 he was one of the first forward air controllers assigned to South Vietnam with a Vietnamese army division.

Lloyd Edward Elwyn Robertson (born October 25, 1970), better known as Ed Robertson, is the Canadian lead singer, as well as a guitarist and songwriter in the band, Barenaked Ladies. Robertson, along with former member Steven Page, founded the group in 1988.

Robertson was born the youngest of five children, with two sisters, Lynn and Bonnie, and two brothers, Bill and Doug; He claims to have been named on a bet. His mother, Wilma, was a secretary for Imperial Oil, and his father, Earl, worked both as a shipping foreman for Honeywell, and as an egg grader. He believes that his conception was an "accident" due to the fact that he is several years younger than his siblings, who were all born about one year apart. He credits this situation with allowing him to have the experience of being both in a big family, and an only child—once his siblings moved out of their home.

Robertson began working part-time when he was 13 years old. He has bragged about being named employee of the month at his local Wendy's in July 1985. He also answered phones at a CAA office. Robertson appeared in the music video for "All We Are" by Kim Mitchell from Mitchell's 1985 album Akimbo Alogo.