Beatriz Villarroel

{{Ufology}}
'''Beatriz Villarroel''' is a pseudoastronomer from Sweden. Formerly an average, but respectable, line researcher at the Nordic Institute of Theoretical Physics, in the early 2020s — after suffering the loss of speaking engagements and other repercussions for collaborating with accused serial sex harasser Geoff Marcy — she jumped away from mainstream science and started writing about flying saucers. Her theories about marauding fleets of orbital alien rocketships have been rejected by mainstream science, from which she has become isolated. She is a popular figure on the [[UFO]] carnival circuit, appearing on [[paranormal]] podcasts and at flying saucer festivals. 

Villarroel has declared herself a follower of "[[Disclosure]]", a conspiracy theory which posits that the U.S. Government is keeping secrets about Martian infiltration of human society.

==Early career==
After obtaining her PhD in [[astronomy]] from Uppsala University — which boasts the world's 
12th
 128th<ref>https://www.topuniversities.com/university-subject-rankings/physics-astronomy?search=uppsala</ref> most prestigious astronomy department — in 2017,<ref>''Active Galactic Nuclei in galaxy surveys: Empirical paths to the fiery hearts of cosmic beasts'' by Beatriz Villarroel (2016) Doctoral thesis, Uppsala University.</ref> Villarroel embarked on an unremarkable career as a mid-tier research physicist at the Nordic Institute of Theoretical Physics, publishing some routine but interesting papers and accumulating a mild though respectable H-Index of 12.<ref>[https://beatrizvillarroel.com/ Beatriz Villarroel]</ref><Ref>[https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=_Jc8gm0AAAAJ&hl=en Beatriz Villarroel] ''Google Scholar''.</ref>

==Descent into ufology==
Villarroel burst onto the scene in 2021 when she co-authored a paper that tried to reject the widely accepted explanation for anomalies seen in a 1950s sky survey done at the Mount Palomar Observatory. While the anomalies had conventionally been attributed to defects in its photographic glass plates, Villarroel instead advanced the eyebrow-raising [[hypothesis]] that they were actually "extraterrestrial satellites in orbit around the [[Earth]]"<ref name="unizin">{{cite web |last1=Villarroel |first1=Beatriz |title=My Personal Journey Through the Unknown | url=https://psu.pb.unizin.org/hxlibraries24curiositycontroversycourage/chapter/my-personal-journey-through-the-unknown-navigating-vanishing-stars-uaps-stigma-and-controversies-in-the-astronomy-community/ |website=unizin.org |publisher=The Pennsylvania State University Open Resource Publishing | date=May 22, 2024|access-date=November 2, 2025}}</ref>&nbsp;— a marauding fleet of Martian star cruisers, in other words. The paper's conclusion was, naturally, rejected by academia and subjected to a discrediting rejoinder paper.<ref>{{cite journal | last1=C | first1=Hambly | last2=A | first2=Blair | title=On the nature of apparent transient sources on the National Geographic Society–Palomar Observatory Sky Survey glass copy plates | journal=Ras Techniques and Instruments | date=5 January 2024 | volume=3 | issue=1 | pages=73–79 | doi=10.1093/rasti/rzae004 | doi-access=free | url=https://academic.oup.com/rasti/article/3/1/73/7601398 }}</ref> A speaking invitation previously extended to Villarroel to address a workshop at Penn State University was then yanked.<ref name="unizin">{{cite web |last1=Villarroel |first1=Beatriz |title=My Personal Journey Through the Unknown | url=https://psu.pb.unizin.org/hxlibraries24curiositycontroversycourage/chapter/my-personal-journey-through-the-unknown-navigating-vanishing-stars-uaps-stigma-and-controversies-in-the-astronomy-community/ |website=unizin.org |publisher=The Pennsylvania State University Open Resource Publishing | date=May 22, 2024|access-date=November 2, 2025}}</ref> At this point, Villarroel dramatically declared she was being [[bullied]] by [[physicists]] and would withdraw from conventional science to do "UFO research".<ref name="unizin"/>

In 2023, Villarroel drafted an unpublished paper that suggested purported sightings of aircraft that could not be positively identified meant they were of "extraterrestrial origin".<ref>https://vasconsite.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/hoover_uap-5.pdf</ref> Her co-author on the paper was accused serial sex harasser Geoff Marcy.<ref name="UCB-Policy">{{cite web |publisher=University of California |title=UC Berkeley Sexual Harassment Policy |url=https://ophd.berkeley.edu/policies-procedures/sexual-harassment |date=June 17, 2015 |access-date=October 27, 2015 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151013000445/http://ophd.berkeley.edu/policies-procedures/sexual-harassment |archive-date=October 13, 2015}}</ref><ref name="NYT-20151010-db">{{cite news |last=Overbye |first=Dennis |title=Geoffrey Marcy, Astronomer at Berkeley, Apologizes for Behavior |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/11/science/astronomer-apologizes-for-behavior.html |date=October 10, 2015 |work=The New York Times |access-date=October 11, 2015 |archive-date=February 6, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180206021638/https://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/11/science/astronomer-apologizes-for-behavior.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="SHAtlantic">{{cite news |last=Andersen |first=Ross |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2015/10/sexual-harassment-geoff-marcy/410089/ |title=The Consequences of Sexual Harassment in Astronomy |work=The Atlantic |date=October 10, 2015 |access-date=October 10, 2015 |archive-date=October 11, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151011000924/http://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2015/10/sexual-harassment-geoff-marcy/410089/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="SHScience">{{cite news |last=Mervis |first=Jeffrey |url=https://www.science.org/content/article/berkeley-astronomer-found-guilty-sexual-harassment |title=Berkeley astronomer found guilty of sexual harassment |work=Science Insider |date=October 9, 2015 |access-date=October 10, 2015 |archive-date=March 3, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220303091013/https://www.science.org/content/article/berkeley-astronomer-found-guilty-sexual-harassment |url-status=live }}</ref>

Two years later, in 2025, Villarroel teamed with Stephen Bruehl, a [[psychologist]] specializing in pain research (!) at Vanderbilt University<ref>[https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Stephen-Bruehl Stephen Bruehl] ''ResearchGate''.</ref>{{efn|No evidence has emerged to suggest he was treating her at the time.}} to publish two additional papers that sought to redeem her flying saucer claims about the Mount Palomar Observatory. Academic preprint repository arXiv took the unusual step of refusing to archive either paper, denouncing them as lacking "sufficient or substantive scholarly research".<ref name="sam">{{cite news |last1=O'Callaghan |first1=Jonathan |title=UFOs Are Just One Explanation for Mysterious Patterns in Old Telescope Data |url=https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/did-astronomers-photograph-ufos-orbiting-earth-in-the-1950s/ |access-date=October 29, 2025 |work=[[Scientific American]] |date=October 28, 2025}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last1=Ramskov |first1=Jens |title=Mystiske mønstre fundet i astronomers observationer: Skyldes de atombomber og UFO'er? |url=https://ing.dk/artikel/mystiske-moenstre-fundet-i-astronomers-observationer-skyldes-de-atombomber-og-ufoer |access-date=November 3, 2025 |work=Ingeniøren |language=da|date=November 3, 2025}}</ref> In an article in ''Scientific American'' analyzing the papers, four separate astronomers&nbsp;— obviously keen to Villarroel's penchant for hurling claims of bullying anytime her space alien hypotheses were criticized&nbsp;— offered hilariously polite explanations as to why the Swedish nutjob's research was absolute bonkers, underscored by the University of Edinburgh's Nigel Hambly who gently observed "there's no shame in being wrong".<ref name="sam"/> In a separate article appearing in ''Popular Mechanics'', Princeton University's Robert Lupton was more blunt than his colleagues, stating he was entirely "unimpressed" with the strength of the [[statistical]] analysis undertaken by Villarroel.<ref name="popmech">{{cite news |last1=Howell |first1=Elizabeth |title=A Mysterious UFO Sighting Went Unsolved for 70 Years—Now 'Rigorous' Tests May Confirm It, Scientists Say |url=https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/a69510563/old-ufo-photos/ |access-date=November 22, 2025 |work=Popular Mechanics |date=November 21, 2025}}</ref>

Villarroel has bemoaned that the standards of scientific evidence are too "stringent" for her so-called "UFO research"<Ref>{{cite web
 |title=The truly intriguing question is: how many astronomical discoveries and results would remain undiscovered or …
 |author=Beatriz Villarroel
 |authorlink=Beatriz Villarroel
 |work=X (formerly Twitter)
 |date=December 25, 2024
 |url=https://x.com/DrBeaVillarroel/status/1872018475012505624
 |archive-url=https://archive.ph/6Eml6
 |archive-date=January 13, 2026
 |quote=The truly intriguing question is: how many astronomical discoveries and results would remain undiscovered or …
}}</ref>&nbsp;— presumably because she's failed, in fact, to produce any evidence of flying saucers! On [[social media]], she has declared herself a believer in the "disclosure" [[conspiracy theory]]<ref>{{cite web |title=Never taken — and never will take — a cent from the US DoD, AARO, or any military agency anywhere in the world. I’m a pacifist, an independent scientist, and I stand for full catastrophic disclosure.
 |author=Beatriz Villarroel
 |authorlink=Beatriz Villarroel
 |work=X (formerly Twitter)
 |date=November 8, 2025
 |url=https://x.com/DrBeaVillarroel/status/1987192786823561588
 |archive-url=https://archive.ph/XMUw8
 |archive-date=January 13, 2026
 |quote=Never taken — and never will take — a cent from the US DoD, AARO, or any military agency anywhere in the world. I’m a pacifist, an independent scientist, and I stand for full catastrophic disclosure.
}}</ref>{{efn|Villarroel has specifically aligned herself with the "catastrophic disclosure" brand of the conspiracy theory. Disclosure is a conspiracy theory that states the U.S. Government has secret information about Martians and "catastrophic disclosure" is an imaginary proposal that non-governmental actors should make these secrets known by willing them into the open.}} and once declared a speech given by UFO crackpot [[Christopher K. Mellon]] at a flying saucer festival to be "inspiring".<Ref>{{cite web
 |title=This is a very inspiring talk by @ChrisKMellon
 |author=Beatriz Villarroel
 |authorlink=Beatriz Villarroel
 |work=X (formerly Twitter)
 |date=February 17, 2025
 |url=https://x.com/DrBeaVillarroel/status/1891423338364285378
 |archive-url=https://archive.ph/erJe8
 |archive-date=January 13, 2026
 |quote=This is a very inspiring talk by @ChrisKMellon
}}</ref>

Since crashing out of physics, Villarroel has started working the UFO carnival circuit, appearing on [[paranormal]] podcasts<ref>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1zRWi_r3HRM</ref> and at flying saucer conventions.<ref>{{cite web
 |url=https://thesolfoundation.org/events/the-2025-sol-foundation-symposium/
 |title=The 2025 Sol Foundation Symposium
 |website=The Sol Foundation
 |publisher=The Sol Foundation
 |archive-url=https://archive.ph/tHRws
 |archive-date=2026-01-13
 |access-date=2026-01-13
}}</ref>

==See also==
* [[Erich von Däniken]]

==Notes==
{{notelist}}

==References==
{{reflist}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Villarroel, Beatriz}}
[[Category:Astronomers]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:Pseudoastronomers]]
[[Category:Ufology]]

Categories: Astronomers, Living people, Pseudoastronomers, Ufology