Thiago Luiz Ticchetti

Background

Thiago Luiz Ticchetti was born in 1975 in Santa Cruz, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, the son of Colonel Luiz Mauro Ticchetti, a Brazilian Air Force fighter pilot. He holds a degree in Business Administration from the Associação de Ensino Unificado do Distrito Federal (AEUDF), an Executive MBA from the Brazilian Institute of Capital Markets (IBMEC-DF), and is completing an MBA in International Cooperation and Public Policy. His family aviation background combined with his formal education positioned him to conduct rigorous, systematic investigations of UFO phenomena within the Brazilian context—a region that has produced some of the most significant and well-documented encounters in UFO history.

Career and Institutional Leadership

Ticchetti's UFO research career spans over 30 years, beginning formally in 1997 when he joined Revista UFO as a volunteer translator. Since 2023, he has served as editor-in-chief of the magazine—Brazil's flagship UFO publication and one of the longest-running UFO journals in the world. His progression through Revista UFO reflects deepening expertise: he advanced from translator to consultant, international coordinator, and co-editor before assuming editorial leadership.

In 1997, Ticchetti attended the 1st World Forum of Ufology in Brasília, where he was invited to join the Brazilian Entity for Extraterrestrial Studies. He served as vice president of that organization for approximately 10 years (1997–2007). Since 2017, he has held leadership roles within MUFON (Mutual UFO Network): appointed as Assistant to the International Director of MUFON Brazil in 2017, then elevated to National Director in 2021—a position he continues to hold. He is a MUFON-certified field researcher, member of MUFON's ERT (Emergency Response Team) and Star Team, and as of 2024, a member of The Scientific Coalition for UAP Studies (SCU), signaling academic credibility within the international scientific UFO community.

Ticchetti was also president of the Brazilian Commission of Ufologists (CBU) for seven years and currently serves as its International Director, anchoring him in Brazil's most respected institutional UFO research networks.

Notable Investigations and Expertise

Ticchetti has investigated hundreds of documented UFO cases across Brazil, with particular expertise in some of the country's most significant incidents. His most prominent investigations include Operation Prato/Operation Saucer (the 1977 Colares UFO attacks, where approximately 2,000 residents reported injury-causing UFO beams), the Varginha Incident (1996), the foundational Antonio Villas-Boas case (1961), and the Ubatuba incident (1957). His work preserves detailed records of Brazilian cases often overlooked in English-language UFO archives, making him a crucial bridge between South American and international UFO research communities.

His expertise spans field investigation methodology, extraterrestrial entity typology and classification systems, UFO attack phenomena, and deep historical case research with emphasis on documentation standards and evidence preservation.

Publications and Media Presence

Ticchetti is the author of 14+ books on UFO-related topics, including UFO Contacts in Brazil (2019, 580 illustrated pages—covering Varginha, Operation Prato, Villas-Boas, Ubatuba, and cases never before published in English) and UFO Attacks in Brazil: The True Story of the Most Terrifying Events in the History of Ufology (September 2025). His book series includes UFO Crashes (2002, 2015), the Guide to Extraterrestrial Typology series (2014–2018), the UFO Files: UFO Cases trilogy (2013–2018), and Unusual World: The Log Book (2015). He has published dozens of articles in Revista UFO, UFO Truth magazine, and international UFO publications.

Since 2023, Ticchetti has become increasingly visible in international media, appearing on the podcast Mysteries and Monsters, That UFO Podcast, WEAPONIZED (with Jeremy Corbell and George Knapp), and multiple Spanish and Portuguese-language UFO programs. His recent 2025–2026 interviews and speaking engagements reflect growing recognition of Brazil's UFO research institutional strength and his role as a leading contemporary voice in the field.