The
Researchers

Esteban Carranza is a Costa Rican attorney with extensive experience in corporate, financial, and insurance law, internationally recognized as a leading insurance-law practitioner. His professional reputation rests on an ethical, analytical, and problem-solving approach within dynamic and highly regulated business environments -- precisely the discipline he brings to UAP research.

Esteban's fascination with UFO/UAPs was sparked in the 1990s, after his late uncle Hermann Kopper shared an enlarged copy of The Cote Photo and recounted the story surrounding it. In 2022, Carranza arranged for a contact copy of the original negative to be subjected to a Heidelberg Tango drum scanner -- a high-precision archival instrument -- producing the most detailed digital scan of the image ever made publicly available.

His interest in the subject goes beyond curiosity: it is driven by the conviction that the phenomenon deserves a serious approach, free of prejudice and grounded in empirical evidence and critical thinking.

Michael Strickland is an award-winning large-format photographer and alternative process printmaker. His photographs are shaped by patience, material devotion, and a profound connection to place. Rooted in analog tradition, Strickland works slowly and intentionally -- composing on the ground glass, exposing sheet film, and printing each image by hand using historic processes including platinum-palladium and carbon transfer.

It was Strickland's laboratory that conducted the Heidelberg Tango drum scan of the Cote Photo negative, producing the highest-resolution archival image of the anomaly ever created. His technical precision and commitment to photographic integrity make his analysis of the image particularly significant.

Leslie Kean is an independent investigative journalist and author widely recognized for her reporting on unidentified anomalous phenomena. She rose to international prominence as co-author of a series of groundbreaking New York Times stories beginning in 2017 that revealed the existence of the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP), a previously undisclosed Pentagon program studying UAP, as well as sightings by Navy pilots.

These reports played a major role in bringing the UAP issue out of the realm of stigma and into mainstream public, scientific, and governmental discussion -- prompting congressional interest, official Pentagon acknowledgments, and the establishment of subsequent U.S. government review offices.

Kean is also the author of the bestselling book UFOs: Generals, Pilots, and Government Officials Go on the Record (2010), notable for its emphasis on credible witnesses, official documentation, and a cautious, evidence-based approach.