Robert J Low
Robert J. Low was a University of Colorado administrator who served as the project coordinator and second-in-command of the Condon Committee (1966–1968), the Air Force-funded UFO investigation chaired by Dr. Edward Condon. Low is primarily known for authoring an internal memorandum before the study began that openly described a strategy to make the committee's work appear objective while ensuring it reached predetermined dismissive conclusions. A paper trail exists indicating Low had served in the CIA before his academic appointment at the University of Colorado Boulder.
| Role | CIA-linked academic; Second-in-command of the Condon Committee |
|---|
The Low Memo
In 1966, before the Condon Committee had conducted any investigation, Low wrote a memo to two University of Colorado administrators outlining his approach to the study. The memo read in part:
"The trick would be, I think, to describe the project so that to the public it would appear a totally objective study but to the scientific community would present the image of a group of non-believers trying their best to be objective but having an almost zero expectation of finding a saucer. One way to do this would be to stress investigation not of the physical phenomena but rather of the people who do the observing — the psychology and sociology of persons and groups who report seeing UFOs. If the emphasis were put here rather than on examination of the old question of the physical reality of the saucer, I think the scientific community would quickly get the message."
The memo became public in 1967 when physicist James McDonald disclosed it. McDonald and J. Allen Hynek used the memo as evidence that the Condon Committee's conclusions were predetermined. The memo's strategy — discrediting the observer rather than engaging with the phenomenon — became the template for institutional dismissal of serious UAP testimony for decades. UAP Gerb identifies the Low memo as precisely defining how the UFO Stigma would function moving forward.