Colm Kelleher
Dr. Colm A. Kelleher is an Irish-American biochemist whose career spans the National Institute for Discovery Science (NIDS) under Robert Bigelow's funding from 1996, Bigelow Aerospace Advanced Space Studies (BAASS) during the 2008 to 2010 AAWSAP contract with the Defense Intelligence Agency, and the post-2017 published-book record of the AAWSAP-era investigation. He is one of the three principals of the institutional UAP investigation: alongside James Lacatski and George Knapp he co-authored Hunt for the Skinwalker (2005), Skinwalkers at the Pentagon (2021), and Inside the US Government Covert UFO Program: Initial Revelations (2023).
A Life
Colm Kelleher's academic background is in biochemistry. In 1996 he joined the National Institute for Discovery Science (NIDS), the Las Vegas research foundation funded by Robert Bigelow and dedicated to the systematic investigation of UAP and related anomalous phenomena. NIDS purchased the Utah property subsequently known as Skinwalker Ranch from the Sherman family in 1996 and ran a multi-year scientific field investigation of the reported phenomena on the property from that point through to NIDS's institutional dissolution in 2004.
Kelleher served as NIDS's deputy administrator across the 1996 to 2004 period, with operational responsibility for the field investigation programme on Skinwalker Ranch alongside the biochemistry, parapsychology, and physical-sciences research the institute funded. The Skinwalker Ranch investigation generated more than ten years of field data, instrument logs, witness interviews, and physical-evidence collection that subsequently formed the documentary basis of the 2005 book co-authored with George Knapp.
The data we collected at Skinwalker Ranch over the NIDS and BAASS periods was the most sustained scientific field investigation of UAP-adjacent phenomena ever conducted. The published record is a partial extract from a much larger institutional archive.Colm Kelleher, on the NIDS and BAASS field record
When the AAWSAP contract was awarded to Bigelow Aerospace Advanced Space Studies (BAASS) in October 2008, Kelleher transitioned from NIDS into the BAASS deputy administrator role. The AAWSAP contract was the institutional successor to the NIDS work and brought the prior field investigation under formal Defense Intelligence Agency contract management. Kelleher was responsible for the BAASS side of the contract execution, working alongside James Lacatski at the DIA programme management end and the broader BAASS investigative team. The Skinwalker Ranch field investigation continued under the AAWSAP contract through 2010.
Following the formal conclusion of the AAWSAP contract in 2010, Kelleher remained at Bigelow Aerospace through the subsequent contract sequence. In 2021 he co-authored Skinwalkers at the Pentagon: An Insider's Account of the Secret Government UFO Program with James Lacatski and George Knapp. The book was the first detailed published account of the AAWSAP field investigation by a principal of the contract. The 2023 follow-up Inside the US Government Covert UFO Program: Initial Revelations extended the documentary record with contract-file material and additional principal interviews. A forthcoming third volume has been announced.
Kelleher has not testified at any of the 2022, 2023 or 2024 public House hearings. His engagement with the post-2017 disclosure cycle runs through the published books, the long-form podcast circuit (Knapp and Jeremy Corbell's Weaponized podcast from May 2024 has been a primary venue), and the continuing private-sector consulting on the institutional UAP record.
Career Record
- PhD Biochemistry.
- 1996 to 2004. Deputy administrator, National Institute for Discovery Science (NIDS). Skinwalker Ranch field investigation principal.
- 2005. Hunt for the Skinwalker (Paraview Pocket Books) co-authored with George Knapp.
- October 2008 to 2010. Deputy administrator, Bigelow Aerospace Advanced Space Studies (BAASS). AAWSAP contract execution.
- 2021. Skinwalkers at the Pentagon (RTMA) co-authored with James Lacatski and George Knapp.
- 2023. Inside the US Government Covert UFO Program: Initial Revelations (RTMA) co-authored with Lacatski and Knapp.
Sources
This biography is built from publicly available material: Kelleher's three published books with Knapp and Lacatski, NIDS public records, the AAWSAP DIRDs released via FOIA (2018), the Lacatski-Kelleher-Knapp public engagements through the Weaponized podcast and broader media. The contradiction between the published-book account and the AARO Historical Record Report Volume I findings is documented on the United States country page. If anything needs correcting, please get in touch.
