UAlbany Receives Major Gift to Advance Scientific Research on Unidentified Aerial Phenomena

three men and a woman stand in a row facing the camera in front of a whiteboard scrawled with figures and shapes
From left: Matthew Szydagis, Tony Gorman, Cecilia Levy and Kevin Knuth. Gorman, who established an endowment to advance work in analyzing unidentified aerial phenomena, visited the three physics professors at UAlbany. (Photo by Zach Durocher)

ALBANY, N.Y. (Nov. 5, 2025) — The University at Albany has received a transformational endowment gift from longtime businessman Tony Gorman to support cutting-edge physics research on unidentified aerial phenomena (UAPs). Gorman was one of the principal owners of The Gorman Group, a third-generation, family-owned highway construction and materials company. 

“This extraordinary generosity allows UAlbany to strengthen its role as one of the few universities worldwide leading academic research into UAPs,” said Fardin Sanai, vice president for university advancement. “We are grateful to Tony Gorman for his vision and commitment, and to our faculty for advancing scholarship in this emerging area.”  

The gift was inspired after Gorman watched a local news story about a team of UAlbany physicists applying rigorous scientific methods to document and analyze UAPs.  

“I have always been curious about UAPs and what could possibly be out there," said Gorman. “When I saw the UAP research the UAlbany team is doing, I wanted to learn more.  After talking with the researchers, I gained so much respect for their work. Right there, I knew I wanted to get involved.” 

four people sit around a table, one of them signing a large blue poster
From left, Knuth, Gorman and Szydagis chat as Levy signs a poster from the 2022 documentary "A Tear in the Sky." The poster was a gift to Gorman in appreciation of his support. (Photo by Zach Durocher)

With the goals of adding to the field's scholarship and devising rigorous and repeatable methods of detection and analysis, Professor Kevin Knuth and associate professors Matthew Szydagis and Cecilia Levy deployed weather radar data, radiation detectors and artificial intelligence during a 2021 field expedition in Laguna Beach, California. Their findings, previously reported, were published in the peer-reviewed journal Progress in Aerospace Sciences in June 2025. Knuth and Szydagis also collaborated on a second 2025 paper, entitled "The New Science of Unidentified Aerospace-Undersea Phenomena."  

“Like the public, we in the research community are also fascinated by what else or who else is potentially in the universe. With Tony’s generous support, we can create a long-term foundation for scientific rigor, the true path to discovery,” said Knuth. “Our aim is to dispel common misconceptions about UAP and bring clarity and credibility to one of science’s most fascinating questions. This philanthropic support comes at an opportune time, as the physics department’s UAP research base grows, with the recent addition of physicist Dr. Eric W. Davis as visiting adjunct faculty. Dr. Davis has cooperated with recent congressional UAP hearings." 

Launching UAPx: UAlbany Project X 

The financial gift also makes possible the launch of UAlbany Project X (UAPx), a new academic collaboration focused solely on advancing rigorous science in the study of UAPs/UFOs. UAPx continues the mission of a federal non-profit of the same name, co-founded by Navy veterans Kevin Day and Gary Voorhis to gather and maintain quality data on UAPs. UAPx now joins an elite cluster of academic collaborations at universities around the world, including in Sweden, in Germany, and at Harvard in the U.S., focused on such work.