Maaneli Derakhshani

Early life and education

Maaneli "Max" Derakhshani is an American theoretical physicist and philosopher of physics. According to the biography on The Other Side of Midnight, he holds a Ph.D. in the foundations of physics from Utrecht University and has worked as a postdoctoral researcher at Rutgers University (New Brunswick) and at Utrecht. The author note in his thesis, as surfaced in search results, says he trained in both physics and philosophy and, after a couple of years away from academia, entered a graduate physics program at Clemson University. Earlier versions of this entry gave his birth year and hometown. Those details do not appear in the sources reviewed for this revision and should be treated as unverified.

Scientific work

His best-documented scholarly output is his doctoral thesis, Stochastic Mechanics Without Ad Hoc Quantization: Theory and Applications to Semiclassical Gravity. The 275-page thesis was completed on 19 October 2017 and posted to arXiv on 31 March 2018. It tries to rebuild quantum mechanics from a more fundamental theory of classical point particles. Standard stochastic mechanics needs an ad hoc quantization condition to recover the Schrödinger equation. Derakhshani removes that need by combining the framework with de Broglie and Bohm's idea that particles are localized periodic phenomena. He then adds Newtonian gravity and electrostatic interactions. The resulting semiclassical models recover the Schrödinger–Newton and Schrödinger–Coulomb equations as mean-field approximations. This is mainstream-adjacent foundations-of-physics work, in the Bohmian tradition and well outside UFO literature. His Google Scholar profile lists his wider publication record.

His stated research interests are quantum physics, relativity, quantum gravity, statistical physics, philosophy of science, climate science, the scientific study of UAP, and scientific searches for extraterrestrial artifacts on the Moon and Mars. His listed affiliations are fellow of the John Bell Institute for the Foundations of Physics, member of the Foundational Questions Institute, member of the Scientific Coalition for UAP Studies, and senior science advisor to the CO2 Coalition. A speaker profile for a deep-tech conference likewise lists Moon and Mars geological anomalies among his interests.

UAP work: the Disclosure Foundation NASA review

His main public connection to the UAP field comes from a 24 June 2026 Disclosure Foundation announcement. The nonprofit said it would "conduct a review of NASA archival material for UAP information." Derakhshani is named as a member of the project's executive committee, described as a theoretical physicist. The other members are:

• Mike Gold, former NASA Associate Administrator for Space Policy and Partnerships
• Jordan Flowers, the Foundation's executive director
• astronomer Beatriz Villarroel
• Travis Taylor, astrophysicist and former chief scientist of the UAP Task Force
• Reggie Brothers, former DHS Under Secretary for Science and Technology
• biomedical researcher Stephen Bruehl

Gold and Brothers had both served on NASA's UAP Independent Study Team.

The announcement states three goals: to identify imagery, data and other information relevant to UAP; to find anomalies that "warrant further investigation"; and to share findings with the public and federal and state entities. The planned methods are additional experts, voluntary corporate contributions, citizen science, and AI and machine learning "to the extent possible." The announcement noted that NASA material in three earlier Pentagon release tranches was already public. The committee had met virtually and planned a first in-person meeting in July 2026.

An earlier version of this entry said Derakhshani "leads" the committee. The announcement does not say so. It lists him as a member and assigns him no specific responsibility.

Reception and caveats

There is little independent commentary on Derakhshani. The sources reviewed do not record any specific UAP claims, conclusions or findings by him. I found no source confirming a board role at the Scientific Coalition for UAP Studies, or UAP-specific papers authored by him. Two UAP papers surfaced in searches, the 2025 review The New Science of Unidentified Aerospace-Undersea Phenomena and the UAPx Catalina expedition paper, and neither listed him in the information retrieved. They are useful background on the academic UAP effort he has joined, not evidence of his involvement.

The Disclosure Foundation announcement is also a promotional document. It cites the Foundation's own polling and praises the Trump administration's UAP transparency efforts, so it describes the project's intent and not its results. As of this writing no findings from the NASA review had been located. Whether the review turns up anything beyond already-public material is an open question.

Legacy and current status

Derakhshani is best understood as an example of a trend in the disclosure era: credentialed physicists from foundations-of-physics backgrounds joining organized UAP efforts after government releases and NASA's own 2023 study gave the topic more institutional footing. His reputation rests on his conventional physics work. His UAP role is recent, collaborative and so far thinly documented. Credibility is rated well-documented for his academic credentials, with the caveat that his UAP contributions are still unproven in the public record.