People
Board of Directors
Garry Nolan
Executive Director of the Board
Dr. Nolan is the Rachford and Carlota A. Harris Professor in the Department of Pathology at Stanford University School of Medicine. He trained with Leonard Herzenberg (for his Ph.D.) and Nobelist Dr. David Baltimore (for [...]
read full profile
Peter Skafish
Secretary
Dr. Peter Skafish is a sociocultural anthropologist who works between his discipline and philosophy on how ideas, cosmologies, and translation shape the diversity of human thought and experience. He is currently engaged in research that [...]
read full profile
Aneil Mallavarapu
Independent Board Member
Dr. Mallavarapu is a scientist, inventor, entrepreneur and investor and holds a PhD from the University of California, San Francisco. He serves as an advisor on technology, investment, and governance, and as Acting Treasurer. His [...]
read full profile
Executive Leadership
Peter Skafish
Executive Director
Dr. Peter Skafish is a sociocultural anthropologist who works between his discipline and philosophy on how ideas, cosmologies, and translation shape the diversity of human thought and experience. He is currently engaged in research that [...]
read full profile
Jennifer Preston
Chief Operating Officer
Jennifer Preston is Chief Operating Officer of The Sol Foundation, where she leads day-to-day operations and execution; building the systems, rhythms, and cross-functional infrastructure that enable Sol’s research, policy, and public education work. Jennifer is [...]
read full profile
Matt Mason
Chief Marketing Officer
Matt Mason is a marketing executive, entrepreneur, and author with 20 years of C-level experience at the frontier of consumer tech, AI and blockchain. He was the first CMO at Kraken, head of marketing at [...]
read full profile
Christian Peters
Associate Director of Research
Dr. phil. Christian Peters is a political scientist and research strategist whose work examines the intersections of institutional governance, scientific uncertainty, and the politics of knowledge. As the Managing Director of the Bremen International Graduate [...]
read full profile
Kirk McConnell
Senior Legislative Affairs Officer
Mr. McConnell retired from Congress in March of 2024, after 37 years serving on the staff of the Senate Armed Services Committee, and both Intelligence Committees in the House and Senate. His direct involvement in [...]
read full profile
Advisory Board
Eric Davis
Dr. Eric W. Davis is a leading expert in advanced aerospace propulsion concepts and applications, with approximately four decades of combined aerospace industry and academic experience in astronomy, astrophysics, advanced/breakthrough space propulsion and power engineering-physics; [...]
read full profile
Timothy Gallaudet
Natural Sciences Advisory Board, US Government Advisory Board
The Honorable Tim Gallaudet, PhD, Rear Admiral, U.S. Navy (ret) is a career oceanographer and technology consultant. Formerly, he served as the acting Undersecretary and Assistant Secretary of Commerce, acting and Deputy Administrator of the National Oceanic and [...]
read full profile
Kevin Knuth
Natural Sciences Advisory Board
Kevin Knuth is a Professor of Physics at the University at Albany (SUNY), and is the Editor-in-Chief of the journal Entropy (MDPI). He received his Ph.D. in physics with a minor in mathematics in 1995 [...]
read full profile
Jeffrey J. Kripal
Social Sciences Advisory Board
Jeffrey J. Kripal is the J. Newton Rayzor Chair in Philosophy and Religious Thought at Rice University. He also helps direct the Center for Theory and Research at the Esalen Institute in Big Sur, California [...]
read full profile
Avi Loeb
Natural Sciences Advisory Board
Abraham (Avi) Loeb is the Frank B. Baird, Jr., Professor of Science at Harvard University and a bestselling author (in lists of the New York Times,Wall Street Journal, Publishers Weekly, Die Zeit, Der Spiegel, L’Express and more). He received a PhD [...]
read full profile
Jacob Haqq Misra
Jacob Haqq Misra is the director and senior research investigator at the Blue Marble Space Institute of Science. He is also the Chief Operating Officer and co-founder of the 501(c)(3) organization Blue Marble Space. His [...]
read full profile
Diana Pasulka
Social Sciences Advisory Board
Dr. Diana Walsh Pasulka is a professor of religious studies at the University of North Carolina, Wilmington. Her scholarship primarily centers on Catholic history, with a special emphasis on the intersection of new religious movements. Her [...]
read full profile
Jim Semivan
James “Jim” Semivan is a former career US intelligence official who served for 25 years with the Central Intelligence Agency’s National Clandestine Service and was at his retirement a member of the CIA’s Senior Intelligence [...]
read full profile
Jacques Vallée
Emeritus Advisor
Dr. Jacques Fabrice Vallée is an Internet pioneer, computer scientist, venture capitalist, author, ufologist, and astronomer residing in San Francisco, California and Paris, France. His scientific career began as a professional astronomer at the Paris [...]
read full profile
Beatriz Villarroel
Natural Sciences Advisory Board
Dr. Beatriz Villarroel is a researcher in astronomy at the Nordic Institute for Theoretical Physics (Nordita) in Stockholm. She leads the Vanishing & Appearing Sources during a Century of Observations (VASCO) project (www.vascoproject.org) and the [...]
read full profile
Alexander Wendt
Alexander Wendt is Mershon Professor of International Security and Professor of Political Science at The Ohio State University. He received his PhD from the University of Minnesota in political science in 1989, and before coming [...]
read full profile