MUFON: A 1969-founded US nonprofit pursuing scientific UFO research with a global network and notable controversies

To the point

MUFON is a Cincinnati‑based US nonprofit founded in 1969 as the Midwest UFO Network by Allen R. Utke, Walter H. Andrus Jr., John F. Schuessler and others and renamed in 1973, which studies reported UFO sightings via a global volunteer network, runs an annual international symposium, publishes the MUFON UFO Journal, and trains investigators through MUFON University with unpaid volunteers who must pass a 265‑page manual exam and background checks, while presenting itself as studying physical evidence of extraterrestrial craft and facing criticism for pseudoscience and focus on alien abduction and conspiracy theories, along with internal controversy including far‑right viewpoints among officers and donors and leadership upheaval such as the 2020 removal of executive director Jan Harzan after an arrest for soliciting sex from someone he thought was a minor, and it maintains media presence in programs and major outlets.

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Mutual UFO Network - Wikipedia

MUFON is a US-based nonprofit devoted to the scientific study of reported UFO sightings, with more than 4,000 members and chapters across all 50 states and over 43 countries, founded in 1969 as the Midwest UFO Network by Allen R. Utke, Walter H. Andrus Jr., John F. Schuessler, and others and renamed MUFON in 1973; headquartered in Cincinnati, it runs a worldwide network, holds an annual international symposium, publishes the MUFON UFO Journal, and in 2015 founded Mutual UFO Network University to train investigators who purportedly number more than 500 and must pass an exam and background check, while maintaining a newsroom and case management system and claiming to study potential physical evidence of extraterrestrial craft, even as it has faced criticism for promoting pseudoscience and focusing on alien abduction and conspiracy theories, with notable incidents such as 2013–2014 executive director Jan Harzan's public discussion of a childhood encounter with an alien and his 2020 arrest for soliciting sex from a person he thought was a minor leading to his removal, along with internal controversy over far-right viewpoints among officers and donors and related resignations, as well as broad media exposure through appearances on programs like UFO Hunters, The X-Files, Ancient Aliens, and Hangar 1 and coverage by major outlets such as The New York Times and Forbes.