Steve Desch is an astrophysicist at Arizona State University and a vocal mainstream-science critic of avi-loeb’s methods. Quoted in a June 2026 AP wire profile saying Loeb “uses flawed methods to reach wild conclusions” about alien life while “shunning a more established branch of science searching for life beyond Earth,” and that Loeb’s leadership of the uap-science-advisory-council “casts doubt on the entire endeavor.”