James E. McDonald

Atmospheric physicist; the scientist who most seriously advocated rigorous UFO study in the 1960s.

James Edward McDonald (May 7, 1920 – June 13, 1971) was an American atmospheric physicist and meteorologist. He is known for his scientific research in weather modification through cloud seeding, while working as an associate director at the Institute for Atmospheric Physics and a professor of meteorology at the University of Arizona in Tucson. During the 1960s, McDonald campaigned in support of expanding UFO studies, and promoted the extraterrestrial hypothesis as a plausible explanation of UFO phenomena.