Leon Davidson

Leon Davidson (October 18, 1922 - January 1, 2007) was an American chemical engineer and nuclear scientist who participated in the Manhattan Project as an engineering design supervisor, afterward working for the Atomic Energy Commission and the Department of Defense, and, later transitioning to the civilian sector, variously being employed the likes of General Precision Laboratories, IBM, Nuclear Development Corporation of America, Teleregister, Union Carbide, and Western Union.

Beginning in the 1950s, Davidson dedicated a large portion of his time to the nascent study of UFOs, engaging in letter writing campaigns to various agencies and governmental authorities on the matter, through which efforts he was eventually permitted to publish the U.S. Air Force's Project Blue Book, Special Report No. 14. As a consequence of his study, Davidson became convinced that reported UFOs were most likely experimental U.S. aircraft and that public furore over the subject was stoked by the CIA.[C] Late in his life, Davidson donated his UFO papers to the Low Memorial Library at Columbia University, his alma mater.