Sean Kirkpatrick

Sean M. Kirkpatrick is a physicist who became the first director of AARO, the Pentagon office created to centralize the U.S. government's investigation of unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP). He led the office for roughly 18 months before retiring from federal service in December 2023. His work is relevant to UAP because he oversaw the government's most formal, dedicated effort to collect and analyze UAP reports from military personnel.

What is his background before AARO?

Kirkpatrick was born in Columbus, Georgia, to an Army family and grew up in Duluth, Georgia. He earned a BS in Physics from the University of Georgia in 1991 and a PhD in Physics from the same school in 1995, with doctoral research focused on nonlinear and nonequilibrium phonon dynamics of rare earth-doped fluorides. He then took a postdoctoral position at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.

His career in defense and intelligence science began right after graduate school. Over the following decades he worked for organizations including the Air Force, the CIA (which he joined in 2005), the National Reconnaissance Office, and the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA). He served as Deputy Director of Intelligence for U.S. Strategic Command from 2016 to 2017, and as Director of National Security Strategy for the National Security Council from 2017 to 2018.

What did he do as AARO director?

Kirkpatrick was asked in early 2022 to lead the newly established AARO, reporting to Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks. AARO's mandate was to centralize and streamline Department of Defense and Intelligence Community efforts to investigate UAP encountered by U.S. military personnel. On April 19, 2023, he testified as the sole witness before the Senate Armed Services Subcommittee on Emerging Threats and Capabilities, chaired by Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY). During that testimony he introduced two new UAP videos and stated that AARO was tracking approximately 650 UAP cases at that time.

He also gave opening remarks at the first public meeting of NASA's UAP independent study team on May 31, 2023, and announced an online reporting mechanism allowing current and former government personnel to submit UAP knowledge dating back to 1945. AARO launched a public-facing website in August 2023 providing official declassified UAP information, including pictures and videos.

What did he say about David Grusch's testimony?

Following the July 26, 2023 Congressional UAP hearing that included testimony from David Grusch, Kirkpatrick posted on LinkedIn that Grusch "has refused to speak with AARO," meaning details Grusch provided to Congress had not been provided to his office.

What were his findings on UAP?

In a March 2024 op-ed in Scientific American, Kirkpatrick stated that his office had found no evidence of aliens and argued that conspiracy claims derive from inadvertent or unauthorized disclosures of legitimate programs. AARO's Report on the Historical Record of U.S. Government Involvement with Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP), Volume 1, produced under his leadership, similarly found no evidence of alien off-world technologies.

What has he done since leaving AARO?

Kirkpatrick retired from federal service effective December 1, 2023, after approximately 18 months leading AARO. He joined Oak Ridge National Laboratory as Chief Technology Officer for defense and intelligence programs and is listed as an advisor at WestExec Advisors. He is also listed on the advisory board of Expeditionary AI.