Jacques Vallée

Jacques Vallee is an astronomer who was born in France, and specializes in the study of unidentified flying objects (UFO). He received a B.S. in mathematics at the Sorbonne and an M.S. in astrophysics at Lille University. He later received a doctorate in computer science at Northwestern University. Vallée co-developed the first computerized mapping of Mars for NASA and helped create ARPANET the forerunner of the Internet.

He participated in the 1997 Physical Evidence from UFO Reports symposium.

Vallee developed a taxonomy for UFO observations, which includes interactions between humans and aliens. *AN1: Viewing anomalous lights or explosions in the sky that do not affect the witness or the environment.
 * AN2: Reports that show lasting effects such as flattened grass, poltergeist activity or anomalous photographs.
 * AN3: Cases that include entities. This could include ghosts, yetis (Abominable Snowman), elves, spirits and cryptozoology.
 * AN4: The witness reports interaction with the entities within the reality of the entities themselves. This type of experience could include near-death experiences, religious visions and out-of-body experiences (OBEs).
 * MA1: A UFO that drops, maneuvers, loops.
 * MA2: A UFO that includes a physical interaction with the environment while performing drops, maneuvers or loops. An example of this would be seeing a UFO near a power plant.
 * MA3: Witnessing entities on board a UFO while performing the above mentioned maneuvers.
 * MA4: The UFO witness observes the listed actions and goes through a transformational experience during the event.
 * MA5: The UFO witness suffers serious or injury as a result of seeing a UFO in the sky.

The character of Claude Lacombe, played by François Truffaut in Steven Spielberg’s 1977 film "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" was patterned after Vallée.