Researcher Attribution and Role Ledger

PROBLEM: In a 23-year classified program, roles blur and credit drifts. Dr. Edwin C. May was hired as a consultant to the SRI project in 1975, succeeded Hal Puthoff as project director in 1985, founded the Cognitive Sciences Laboratory, and ran the program through its SAIC years until termination in 1995 — the longest-serving director. His papers (54 boxes, 1974–1995) sit at Rice University's Woodson Research Center, open for research. But across the declassified record, the same person appears as consultant, physicist, director, and author in different documents, and popular accounts routinely misstate who ran what, when. There is no standing ledger tying each researcher to each role, each period, and each document.

SOLUTION: A researcher attribution and role ledger: every person on a classified research program logged with each role held, the dates of each role, the documents they authored, and the archive holding their papers — so attribution is a matter of record, not of retelling.

EVIDENCE BASIS: DOCUMENTED — May: B.S. physics Rochester 1962, Ph.D. nuclear physics 1968; hired 1975 as SRI consultant; project director from 1985; founded CSL; transferred lab to SAIC 1991; director until termination 1995; papers MS 0773, 54 boxes, Rice University, open for research. Sources: Society for Psychical Research Psi Encyclopedia; Rice University Woodson Research Center; OCLC ArchiveGrid.