Stanford’s Professor Garry Nolan Talks Orbs, Drones, & Disclosure
It All Connects! By Lisa Puzo Strickland, PhD
September 2025
When the U.S. Government needs answers on such crises as the Havana Syndrome or the Ebola virus, it goes to Nolan Lab at Stanford University.
(Above Photo Courtesy of Stanford Magazine)
It is here that Professor Garry Nolan, together with his team, conducts leading research and application development in cancer and immunology.
Scientifically speaking, Nolan’s got stripes!
He is the Rachford and Carlota A. Harris Professor in the Department of Pathology at Stanford University School of Medicine and the recipient of Stanford’s 2024 Lifetime Achievement Award in Biomedical Sciences.
Domestically speaking, Nolan’s got dogs!
…one of whom, Dolly, enjoyed sharing our Zoom screen until Garry’s husband, Tim, enticed her away.
With over 350 published research articles, 50+ U.S. patents, and several pioneering start-ups among his many accomplishments, it is no surprise that Professor Nolan has developed a strong peer and public following.
And impressively over the last few years, Nolan has steadily gained an additional audience by becoming one of today’s principal voices on unidentified aerial phenomena, or UAP.
In doing so, he has successfully brought a credible discernment to the UAP/NHI (nonhuman intelligence) topic while treating both the data and the experiencers themselves with the same grace and generosity he characteristically grants his colleagues and students within the science community.
Nolan refers to what his own mentor, Dr. Leonard Herzenberg, taught him years ago:
“As soon as you can start giving away ideas, you can make room in your head for more ideas to spring. And by doing that, and making stuff available to other people, it’s freeing in a way. It’s almost paradoxical that by giving stuff away, you get to keep more.”
While Nolan gladly offers guiding thoughts, he simultaneously refuses undeserved credit or expects something in return.
“The more you can make it about other people, the more likely they’re able to come to you … and know that you’re not going to take from them.”
Nolan’s altruistic philosophy reminded me of how the songwriting community works here in Nashville, TN. Whether a songwriter has had a string of hits or has never reached chart success, Music City writers understand that not every idea is meant for the person who created it, but rather for the one who can meld that idea into a meaningful work of airplay.
Nolan concurs. “In science, when you’re having a conversation with someone and you mark ownership of every idea you give them, and you expect to be on the paper because of an idea you gave them, who’s ever going to come to you to give you an idea, or talk about an idea, because then there is a sort of quid pro qui aspect to it that makes it more transactional than just a scientific discussion.”
It is this generous spirit that has perched Nolan and others like him at the forefront of the UAP conversation. Because, by having both the ear and the respect of those associated with the phenomena, Nolan can help advance the dialogue and quicken the flow of information spread – aspects necessary as we near Disclosure.
THE SOL FOUNDATION
One way Nolan and his counterparts hope to retrieve and feed UAP-related findings out into the inquisitive world is through The Sol Foundation, a nonprofit he co-founded to provide “scientific, intellectual, and policy research” and foster “democratic oversight” and “public transparency,” according to the organization’s website.
Nolan describes Sol as a hub of research accessible to both curious governments and to the global population, as well as a safe space to swap insights and share personal accounts.
Sol’s platform model, per Nolan, mimics not only the environment at Nolan Lab, but also how its affiliates run their perspective organizations, i.e., uNHIdden in the UK or Archives of the Impossible at Rice University.
(Other UAP groups like the Hollywood Disclosure Alliance, Paradigm Research Group, MUFON, and New Paradigm Institute, etc. foster this same kind of unhindered collaboration thus allowing an easy exchange of contacts and content between members.)
ORBS
In addition to his commitments for Stanford University and The Sol Foundation, Nolan is a scientific advisor for Skywatcher, a for-profit venture spear-headed by Air Force vet and UFO whistleblower, Jake Barber.
“One of the things that Skywatcher is trying to do is design the kinds of experiments that feed the discussion at places like Sol.”
These experiments are run through a rigorous approach designed by Skywatcher to provide military and private aerospace companies with a framework for efficient analyzation and identification of unidentified aerial objects. And for good reason:
“Our objective at Skywatcher is to collect data in a manner that will directly convince aerospace and government adjacent organizations that there is data worthy of thinking about as evidence … That’s what everybody wants: Evidence!”
During one of his excursions with the Skywatcher team, Nolan became aware of an orb missed by the naked eye but visible in a photograph.
“I have a picture of one next to the helicopter literally within a couple of hundred feet.”
I asked Garry what he thought the frequently witnessed orb phenomena might be.
“It’s a manifestation of something. It’s clearly, in some cases, NOT a lens flare. I don’t know what it is, but I know THAT it is!”
Photo: The Joe Rogan Experience
DRONES
Nolan also has his beliefs about drones.
“These drones that we saw recently over New Jersey or the ones we continuously see over facilities in the United Kingdom are happening! And the typical anti-drone efforts such as the use of directed EMP to bring them down don’t work. Why don’t they work?
In Nolan’s opinion, “Either our Earth-based adversaries have figured out a way for their drones not to be interfered with, or we’re dealing with something else.”
It is because of these unanswered questions, Nolan poses, that military and government personnel are finally positioned to consider more possibilities regarding strange anomalies than they were willing to in the past.
“Once you open the aperture, and you’re allowed to look at the anomaly, you’re allowed to ask the question of what the anomaly means. And suddenly people are admitting that there are a lot of anomalies that they can’t explain!”
And as we know, a significant step toward Disclosure is the admittance that the unexplainable does indeed exist and is deserving of investigation.
DISCLOSURE
Nolan does not think we necessarily need the validation from an American President or the U.S. Government that UAP and NHI are a part of our reality, although he adds, “It would be nice.”
He does hope, however, that the Trump Administration understands the benefits that Disclosure would carry for technological advancement.
As Nolan elaborated recently on The Joe Rogan Experience podcast, “I think there is great commercial value here that is being missed … Imagine a civilization that is a million years ahead of us. How many technology revolutions allow these objects to move as we clearly see…motivating itself or maneuvering around the atmosphere? If we could scrape just the tiniest bit of understanding off the top of that, what would that do to change our own civilization?”
At the helm of Disclosure is the UAP Disclosure Act (UAPDA), currently in the lobbying process for approval. If it passes and becomes law, it will give the U.S. Government access to privately acquired materials and biologics labeled of unknown origin. It will also create a much-needed scaffolding for future findings and encounters.
Nolan says he is hopeful that the UAPDA will pass because, once private investors have access to non-human materials, the research will no longer be limited to public dollars or thwarted by red tape but will instead benefit from deeper funds and more focused interest, all with the intent to discover what could be used for the betterment of humanity.
But with or without the UAPDA’s passing, Nolan is already seeing some significant positives, not just in military and government circles, but also in the scientific and academic communities.
“There has been a change in how academia has approached the subject. Suddenly they are being less sure of themselves and not as adamant (that UAP/NHI) do not exist. Now they’re saying, ‘Maybe there is something to this, or at least, we can’t rule it out’.”
CONCLUSIONS:
From an outsider’s view, one would think that Professor Nolan’s career path has placed him in a world of absolutes, where terms are specific and definitions are narrow.
But Nolan warns against taking things at face-value and instead encourages peeking behind the scope - and between the lines. Especially when it concerns a claim or report about UAP or NHI.
“I would advise the public to listen to the words being used and not being swayed by the bias of certain word choices. For instance, when (the Department of Defense) comes out and says there is no evidence they are aliens, well, whoever said they’re aliens? … Because maybe they’re interdimensional beings, or time travelers, or spiritual beings. So, listen to the words being used.”
Wise words from a wise man.
I learned a lot from my conversation with Garry, enough for a second It All Connects! column, which will be featured in the November 2025 edition of The WOW! Signal.
Perhaps what most impressed me about Professor Nolan was what I referred to at the beginning of this writing: his remarkable grace and generosity.
For it is rare to meet anyone with credentials like Nolan’s so willing to share ideas, include other organizations in the dialogue, and spend the majority of their life’s work on what will aid and advance our species.
As a Nashvillian, I might say that Prof. Garry Nolan has truly achieved chart success.
SOURCES:
Photo, Stanford Magazine, “First Contact”, July 2023
Quote pic, Canva, LPS
Photo & Mention, The Joe Rogan Experience, Episode 2372
The Sol Foundation: https://thesolfoundation.org/
Archives of the Impossible: https://impossiblearchives.rice.edu/
uNHIdden: https://www.unhidden.org/
Hollywood Disclosure Alliance: https://www.hollywooddisclosurealliance.org/
Paradigm Research Group: https://paradigmresearchgroup.org/
MUFON: https://newparadigminstitute.org/
New Paradigm Institute: https://newparadigminstitute.org/
Lisa Puzo Strickland holds a PhD in Philosophy and Parapsychology. She is a Member of the Board of Directors of the Hollywood Disclosure Alliance.
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