Sol Foundation

The Sol Foundation for Advanced Scientific and Policy Research is a California nonprofit public benefit corporation that described itself on its launch date, August 15, 2023, as established "to research the philosophical, policy, and scientific implications of Unidentified Aerial Phenomena." It was led at launch by Garry Nolan of the Stanford University School of Medicine and the sociocultural anthropologist Peter Skafish.¹ Its first public sign was a set of documents that surfaced in early August 2023 under the name "Sol Foundation for Advanced Studies," among them the résumé of David Grusch filed with the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability.²³

Incorporation and registry entries

A California business-registry entry last updated September 1, 2023 lists the corporation under its present name on the basis of filings dated July 7, 2023, with three contacts: Nolan, Skafish and Jonathan Berte, the last as chief financial officer.⁴ The California Secretary of State record as carried by OpenCorporates shows an entity of type "Nonprofit Corporation, CA, Public Benefit" (entity number 5810665) with an agent address of Stanford University, 269 Campus Drive, Stanford, California 94305, and a further address of 2945 Bell Road, #316, Auburn, California 95603. Four current officers and one inactive officer are recorded.⁵

The Internal Revenue Service Exempt Organizations Business Master File lists the organization under EIN 93-3649160 as a 501(c)(3) with a ruling date of June 2024, in care of "Attn Nolan" at 5 Hermosa Road, Redwood City, California 94062.⁶ The Form 990 for 2024 gives the Auburn address, a telephone number in the 408 area code, a year of formation of 2023 and California as the state of legal domicile.⁷

The résumé that Grusch submitted to the House Committee on Oversight for its July 26, 2023 hearing lists, under "May 2023-Present," the position "Chief Operating Officer (COO), The Sol Foundation," and describes the employer as a "501c3 federally recognized non-profit," followed by the text "The premier center for research in the natural and social sciences, engineering, and the humanities, but also extends activities to advisory and policy work for the U.S. government/public outreach."³ The IRS ruling date on record for EIN 93-3649160 is June 2024.⁶ Nolan said in September 2023 that Grusch's title had since changed to senior founding advisor, that the earlier title "seemed the right thing at the time," and that Grusch was "a founder of the Sol Foundation."²

The Form CT-1 registration of the California corporation with the California Attorney General's Registry of Charitable Trusts, stamped received May 2, 2024, lists Nolan as chair and director, Skafish as secretary and director and Berte as treasurer and director, gives January 22, 2024 as the date assets were first received, and answers "No" to line 3, which asks whether the organization "is under common control, does it have a close connection with, or is it related to, any other nonprofit or for-profit organization or trust." The Internal Revenue Service determination letter dated June 27, 2024, filed with the registry, gives an effective date of July 7, 2023.⁸

The Original Articles of Incorporation of the California corporation, filed July 7, 2023 under file number 5810665 with Incorporating Services, Ltd. as registered corporate agent and signed electronically "Garry P. Nolan 07/07/2023," state that "The specific purpose of this corporation includes but is not limited to supporting research into and the understanding of Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena." An attachment provides: "Any amendment to these Articles of Incorporation shall require the written approval of each of Garry Nolan, Peter Skafish, and Dave Grusch, if they are still living, have not become incapacitated, and have not been declared dead by a court of law."⁹

A Certificate of Amendment and Restatement of the Articles, filed August 17, 2023 (file number BA20231329692) and signed by Nolan as chair of the board and Skafish as secretary, states that the restatement was approved by the board, that the corporation has no members, and that it "has been duly approved by all of the Designators." Article V as restated reads: "Any amendment to these Articles of Incorporation shall require the written approval of each of the person(s) then holding the status of Designator of the corporation, as defined in the Bylaws of this corporation." The Bylaws, Article III, Section 1, provide that "Garry Nolan and Peter Skafish shall be the designators of this corporation," that a Designator serves "for life or until the Designator resigns or becomes incapacitated," and (Article IV, Section 4) that each Designator has the right to designate one director, with the Designators agreeing unanimously on the designation of any other directors. Vacancies may be filled by unanimous action of the Designators (Section 5), and the Designators may remove a director without cause (Section 6). The restatement does not name Grusch. Between the two filings fall the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability hearing of July 26, 2023, for which Grusch's résumé listed him as the foundation's chief operating officer from May 2023, and the August 15, 2023 launch described above.⁹¹⁰

The Alabama corporation

The Alabama Secretary of State records a name reservation (RES036922) for "The Sol Foundation" for the exclusive use of Garry Nolan for one year beginning July 28, 2022, and a Certificate of Formation filed September 23, 2022 at 20:12 (fee $200) for a domestic nonprofit corporation, entity 001-041-463, that "has no Members." Its principal office and registered office are an address on Discovery Drive NW in Huntsville (Madison County), and its registered agent is Ignite Fueling Innovation, Inc. The stated purpose is "The Sol Foundation supports research into and the understanding of Unidentified Aerial Phenomena." An attached mission statement reads "The Sol Foundation creates greater understanding of Unidentified Aerial Phenomena and their implications by supporting research in the sciences, humanities, technology, and policy as well as increased public awareness." The attached operation agreement directs assets on dissolution to 501(c)(3) purposes or a government, without naming a recipient.¹¹

The initial board of three is Garry P. Nolan, Ph.D. of Redwood City, "Cristopher Mellon" of Laughlintown, Pennsylvania, and Saul Mercado, Ph.D. of Wilton, Connecticut. Nolan signed as "Incorporator, Director" on September 23, 2022. The filings state no occupation or prior office for any director; the Pennsylvania locality is the one given for "Mellon, Christopher" in the Federal Election Commission entries described on the page of Christopher Mellon.¹¹

A board written consent to dissolve was "fully executed on August 31, 2023." The Statement of Intent to Dissolve, signed in DocuSigned versions dated September 7 and September 12, 2023 and filed September 15, 2023 at 10:55, lists the officers as President Garry P. Nolan, Vice President "None," Secretary Saul Mercado and Treasurer Peter Skafish, and the directors as Nolan, "Christopher Mellon" (spelled with an h on this filing) and Mercado, all in care of the San Francisco office of the law firm Adler & Colvin. The Articles of Dissolution, filed September 15, 2023 at 10:56 and signed by Nolan as President, Mercado as Secretary and Skafish as Treasurer, have the box "No plan of distribution was adopted" checked and certify that debts were paid and any remaining property was "transferred, conveyed, or distributed in accordance with" the Alabama nonprofit corporation statute. They name no recipient of assets and do not state whether the corporation held any. A senior paralegal of Adler & Colvin is named as preparer. The record names no other officer, and Jonathan Berte does not appear on it.¹¹

The Alabama corporation was formed 47 days before the change recorded on November 9, 2022 in the registered-agent address of Ignite Fueling Innovation, Inc., which had given the same Discovery Drive address for its individual agent until that date.¹² The IRS Exempt Organizations Business Master File extract for Alabama contains no row for a Sol Foundation.¹³ Alabama business-name searches run on October 3, 2026 returned no entity with "Sky Watcher," "Americans for Safe Aerospace," "Scientific Coalition" or "Paradigm Institute" in its name, and none for To The Stars Academy of Arts & Science among the entities matching "Stars Academy"; the search form matches names only.¹⁴

The Congressional Record lists "SAUL MERCADO, of New York" among Department of State nominees for appointment as Foreign Service officers in three Senate nomination notices: July 11, 2011 (volume 157, number 102, pages S4490 to S4492, in the list of members of the Foreign Service to be consular officers and secretaries in the diplomatic service, under the heading Department of State); July 8, 2015 (volume 161, number 105, pages S4896 to S4899, "for appointment as Foreign Service Officer of Class Four, Consular Officer and Secretary in the Diplomatic Service"); and September 21, 2015 (volume 161, number 136, pages S6855 to S6857, again in the Class Four list). The Alabama filings give the director's residence as Wilton, Connecticut and state no occupation.¹⁵ Jensine Andresen wrote in her book Hyperconvergence: Religion, Politics, and UFOs (posted September 14, 2023) in a passage on the Sol directors: "According to his LinkedIn, Saul Mercado, Ph.D., has been a Foreign Service Officer at the U.S. Department of State from May 2011 to the present."¹⁶

Huntsville conference before the Alabama incorporation

The Scientific Coalition for UAP Studies (SCU) held its Anomalous Aerospace Phenomena Conference (AAPC) 2022 on June 3 to 5, 2022 at the Rocket City Tavern and Conference Center in Huntsville, Alabama, in person and by live stream, with SCU as the only sponsor named on its pages.¹⁷ The Saturday, June 4 agenda has a panel at 12:50 p.m., "The National Security Implications of Scientifically Studying UAP," moderated by Joseph DiNoto, with panelists Matthew Szydagis, Garry Nolan, Joshua Pierson and Richard Hoffman; SCU's recording of the panel, uploaded November 19, 2022, lists the same five.¹⁸¹⁹ SCU's presenter biography describes Hoffman, the conference moderator and a member of SCU's executive board, as "a 25+ year Army Information Technology (IT) defense contractor with Chugach Government Solutions" and "a Senior Systems Engineer Analyst working in the United States Army Materiel Command Headquarters at Redstone Arsenal, Huntsville, Alabama." The same document describes Nolan as the Rachford and Carlota A. Harris Professor in the Department of Pathology at Stanford University School of Medicine.²⁰

The Alabama name reservation for The Sol Foundation in Nolan's name begins July 28, 2022, 53 days after the conference ended, and the Certificate of Formation was filed September 23, 2022 with a Huntsville address as office and Ignite Fueling Innovation as agent.²¹

Officers and board

The Form 990 for the calendar year 2024 lists four people in Part VII: Garry Nolan, director, 0.00 hours a week, no compensation; Peter Skafish, secretary, 1.00 hour a week, reportable compensation $20,000 and other compensation $40,000; Jonathan Berte, treasurer, 0.00 hours, no compensation; and Maura Mindrila, co-CEO, 0.00 hours, other compensation $40,000. Skafish signed the return as secretary on November 16, 2025 and is named as principal officer. The return reports three voting members of the governing body, all independent, no employees and an estimated 25 volunteers.⁷

Press statements used other titles. Nolan was "Executive Director of the Board" and Skafish "Director of Research" in September 2023, and Skafish was "executive director" in December 2024.²²² Nolan said in 2023 that his Stanford appointment did not allow him to hold an officer role in an outside company and that he took no salary.² Diana Walsh Pasulka posted on September 11, 2023 that she was joining the board, and the foundation named I. Charles McCullough III, a former Inspector General of the Intelligence Community, as its legal counsel.² McCullough signed the November 12, 2024 letter to Congress on the review-board provisions of the Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena Disclosure Act under the heading "Former Inspector General of the Intelligence Community," as did Nolan, Skafish, Pasulka and Gallaudet.²³ McCullough is also counsel to Grusch, whom he represented in a May 2022 urgent-concern complaint to the Intelligence Community Inspector General.²⁴

Berte founded the machine-vision company Robovision, which was reported in March 2023 to be assisting Stanford with artificial-intelligence applications for the study of complex diseases.² Mindrila hosted the 2024 symposium as Director of Strategy.²² Part IV of the 2024 Form 990 answers yes to maintaining an office, employees or agents outside the United States.⁷

Website roster

The foundation's website, read on October 3, 2026, lists under "Executive Leadership" Garry Nolan ("Co-Founder & Executive Director of the Board"), Peter Skafish ("Co-Founder & Executive Director"), Tim Gallaudet ("Senior Advisor"), Aneil Mallavarapu ("Independent Board Member"), Jennifer Preston ("Chief Operating Officer"), Matt Mason ("Chief Marketing Officer"), Lou Grossi ("Chief Information Officer") and Christian Peters ("Associate Director of Research"). Its "Advisory Board" lists Eric Davis, Jeffrey J. Kripal and Pasulka (social sciences), Loeb and Beatriz Villarroel (natural sciences), Jacob Haqq-Misra, Alexander Wendt, Jim Semivan, Kirk McConnell ("Senior Legislative Affairs Officer") and Jacques Vallee ("Emeritus Advisor"). The page does not list Grusch, Berte, Mindrila, McCullough or Karl Nell, although Berte, Mindrila and Skafish appear on the 2024 Form 990 and Nell is the author of a Sol paper (see White papers).²⁵

Money

The 2024 Form 990 (submitted November 22, 2025, prepared by EAJ CPA LLC of Kensington, Connecticut) reports total revenue of $937,625: contributions of $758,538, of which $440,776 is entered on line 1d, "related organizations," and $317,762 on line 1f, plus $179,087 of program service revenue under the heading "Symposium." Expenses were $861,680 and gross receipts are stated as $937,625. Revenue less expenses was $75,945; assets at year end were $65,945 (all cash), liabilities $170,000 (against $180,000 at the start of the year) and net assets minus $104,055 (against minus $180,000). Every prior-year column on the return is zero, which suggests that this was the first return filed.⁷

The expense lines include $117,000 for management fees, $269,797 for conferences, conventions and meetings, $66,279 for travel, $11,618 for security and event support, $5,000 for refuse removal, and $380,591 labelled "public relations, brand development" in Schedule O, of which $14,815 is program expense and $365,776 management and general. Part IV, line 34, answers no to whether the organization was related to any tax-exempt or taxable entity, and no Schedule R is among the schedules published; the return does not say who the "related organizations" on Part VIII line 1d are. Schedule B, the schedule of contributors, contains two contributor entries, each with the name and the amount shown only as "RESTRICTED" in the public copy. The return gives the organization's name as "The Sol Foundation for Advanced Scientific and Research Policy," with "Research" and "Policy" in the reverse of the order used in the IRS master file and the California record.⁷

Schedule I lists one grant to an individual: $10,000 as a "research grant for white paper on geopolitical implications of unidentified anomalous phenomena." Its supplemental statement says the organization grants funds to experts "in exchange for white papers," that grantees are selected by the board of directors and that the papers are published on its website. Schedule O describes the November 22 to 23, 2024 symposium at the Fort Mason Center in San Francisco.⁷

The UAP Disclosure Fund, a San Francisco 501(c)(4) in care of Yuan Fung (EIN 99-2834592, IRS ruling date July 2025), has Fung as its executive director on the November 12, 2024 scientists' letter to Congress that Nolan, Skafish, Pasulka, Gallaudet and others signed, and Gallaudet's House biography lists him as an advisory board member of both the Fund and the Sol Foundation.²⁶²³ The Sol Foundation Inc of Carmel, Indiana (EIN 99-3863647; 1051 Oswego Road, in care of Lawrence Baker; IRS ruling date August 2024; private non-operating foundation) is a separate entity. Its Form 990-PF for the period December 24 to December 31, 2024 (submitted November 14, 2025; prepared by L M Henderson & Company LLP of Indianapolis) reports $25,000,000 in contributions received, $17,976 in interest and dividends, $89,482 in expenses, $24,928,494 in assets, no grants paid, and three directors, Lawrence Baker, Patricia Baker and Charles Hertlein, each at one hour a week and unpaid. It lists no website and a telephone number in the 513 area code. Nothing in that filing refers to unidentified anomalous phenomena, to the California corporation or to any of its officers, and no document opened for this entry links the two organizations.²⁷

No filing under the client name Sol Foundation appears in the United States Senate lobbying disclosure database, and no contribution record under the names of Skafish, Berte or Mindrila appears in the Federal Election Commission database.²⁸

Symposia

The first symposium, the "Sol Foundation Initiative for UAP Research and Policy," was held November 17 to 18, 2023 in Palo Alto, California, hosted by the Nolan Laboratory and the Stanford School of Medicine, by invitation only. Nolan opened it with the words "The objective here is to legitimize and professionalize." Speakers included Avi Loeb, Jacques Vallee, Pasulka, the Canadian member of Parliament Larry Maguire, Tim Gallaudet, Karl Nell and Christopher Mellon. Grusch joined on the second day by video from Washington and said, "We need to basically create a parallel track of research and independent discovery that aren't necessarily dependent on the U.S. government."²⁹ Nell's talk is catalogued as "The Schumer Amendment & Controlled Disclosure," a reference to the Senate UAP amendment sponsored by Chuck Schumer.³⁰ Skafish said of the audience, "That audience was as important to me in organizing as the lineup of speakers was," and that the organizers were "very deliberately careful in evaluating the requests for invitations."²⁹

The second symposium, November 22 to 23, 2024 at Fort Mason Center, was opened by Mindrila. Speakers named in coverage were Nell, Eric Davis, the religious-studies scholar Stephen Finley, Gallaudet, the journalist Leslie Kean with Ryan Graves of Americans for Safe Aerospace, the former Senate staff member Kirk McConnell and the venture investor Rizwan Virk. Virk presented four funding models for "frontier science" (research grants, awards-based prizes, an incubator and venture funds) and said he was writing a Sol white paper on the subject. Skafish said that year's meeting was convened in light of "a divisive election season and the likely failure of the UAP Disclosure Act."²²

White papers

The foundation's website lists twelve papers (read October 3, 2026). Volume 1: No. 1, Gallaudet, "Beneath the Surface: We May Learn More about UAP by Looking in the Ocean" (March 2024); No. 2, "UAP in Crowded Skies: Atmospheric and Orbital Threat Reduction in an Age of Geopolitical Uncertainty," credited to "The Sol Foundation" (March 2024); No. 3, Helen McCaw, "Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena: Policy Implications for the Government of the United Kingdom" (May 2024); No. 4, "Anomalous Health Threats: Health Security Considerations for UAP," credited to "The Sol Foundation" (July 2024); No. 5, Paul Thigpen, "NHI, UAP, and the Catholic Faith: How Will the Church Respond" (July 2024); No. 6, Skafish, "The Prospect of Executive Branch Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena Secrecy: The Harm to Congress and Potential Remedies" (November 2024). Volume 2: No. 1, Rizwan Virk, "Investment in UAP Technology and Ventures: Opportunities, Challenges, and a Way Forward" (March 2025); Nell, "The UFO Enigma: A Call for US Government Disclosure" (May 2025; its cover reads "The Policy Papers of the Sol Foundation, Volume 2, No. 2, Spring 2025"); and three papers by Marik von Rennenkampff: "Robust Evidence of Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena in Pre-Satellite Era Night-Sky Images" (January 2026), "First Peer-Reviewed Scientific Analysis of Possible UAP Materials Employs State-of-the-Art Technologies" (April 2026) and "The Civilizational Risks of a UAP Technology Arms Race: Nonhuman Technology and Global Security" (August 2026). The site also lists, under April 2026, McConnell's "UAP Whistleblower Restitution Fund Would Incentivize Disclosures to Congress." The numbering printed on the site for the 2026 items does not run consecutively with the earlier series.³¹

Volume 1, No. 2 gives "Board Director: Dr. Garry Nolan" and "Executive Director: Dr. Peter Skafish" on its back page. Its executive summary says the foundation "commissioned" the report and that it does not present evidence for any theory of UAP. Its bibliography cites Senate Amendment 797 to S. 2226.³² Nell's paper argues for enactment of the review-board and eminent-domain provisions of the Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena Disclosure Act "or by executive order," credits Mike Rounds and Chuck Schumer with the 2024 reintroduction, and describes its author as a retired Army colonel whose last active-duty assignment was as Army director supporting the UAP Task Force and who is chief executive of StarDustX Materials, Inc., "a multimillion-dollar VC-backed startup."³³

UAP Science Advisory Council

In June 2026 Loeb announced that he would lead a "UAP Science Advisory Council" and, in a list he supplied to the news outlet DefenseScoop (published June 17, 2026), named twelve other members with focus areas, among them Gallaudet (oceanography), Nolan (molecular biology and materials science) and Skafish (anthropology). An official of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence told DefenseScoop that the office, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Department of Defense had established an interagency UAP Governance Board, that it "met for the first time yesterday" (June 16, 2026), and that the board is supported by outside advisory groups including the council. Loeb said the council would help the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office "resolve the UAP mystery."³⁴ The Sol Foundation described the council in a June 22, 2026 release as announced by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence "with the support of the FBI"; Loeb wrote on June 16, 2026 that "I was tasked by the White House, the Pentagon's All Domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO), the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), the FBI, and the Intelligence Community, to assemble" it. A search of the Federal Register on October 3, 2026 returned no document naming the council, and no ODNI, AARO or White House release establishing it was located.³⁵