Bob Lazar - Education Part 2

This blog post is the second part of an ongoing discussion about Bob Lazar’s educational background. In the previous article, we presented evidence from Pierce Junior College and the Library of Pierce Junior College, indicating that Lazar was enrolled in a transfer program for UC Los Angeles (UCLA) and took engineering classes as part of his transfer curriculum. Additionally, we discovered that Lazar purchased English and History courses from Pacifica University, which served as prerequisites for transfer and breadth requirements at UCLA. It is worth noting that Pacifica University closed in early April, after UCLA had already sent out acceptance letters to transfer students. Therefore, Lazar’s transfer to UCLA would not have been affected by the courses he bought from Pacifica.

Continuing from where we left off in the previous article, if Lazar enrolled at UCLA in the fall of 1978, he should have completed his bachelor’s degree by the spring of 1980. However, upon examining the UCLA Yearbooks from 1980 and 1981, we find no evidence of Lazar’s presence in either of them. Nevertheless, this hypothesis may still provide with some answers regarding Lazar’s educational record.

In late 1989, Lazar made three separate claims that he had obtained a master’s degree in electronics during the early 1980s. One claim was in writing, another on TV, and the third on the radio. Furthermore, his 1980 marriage certificate stated that he worked as an Electronics Engineer. Starting in 1990, Lazar began professing that his degree was from Caltech and was in Electronic(s) Technology. However, it should be noted that Caltech never offered a degree in electronics or electronics technology. Instead, they had an electrical engineering program that included various electronics courses.

Electrical engineering at the Institute comprises physical electronics, electronic circuits, and communication. — Caltech 1981–1982 Catalog

In his biography, Bob claims in his recollection of meeting John Lear for the first time, saying to him, “I’ve studied and have degrees in electronics and physics.” For what it’s worth, in Lear’s recollection of the same meeting, he claimed that Bob “had a resume with him, and there were copies of both of his degrees from MIT and Caltech.” However, Lear did not specify the type of degrees or the subjects they pertained to.

The term “Electronics Technology” that Lazar used to refer to his degree between 1990 and 1993 typically referred to associate degrees or certificates. In the 16th edition of the College Blue Book from 1977, there were 35 colleges mentioned that offered one- or two-year courses specifically named Electronics Technology, while only seven colleges offered a bachelor’s degree in electronics. These seven colleges used five different names for their programs. Among the seven, only three were close to Los Angeles, where Lazar lived and worked at the time. However, out of those three, only California State University Polytechnic — Pomona was advanced enough to realistically warrant a transfer. Still, given the distance from Lazar’s home on the other side of Los Angeles, it is highly unlikely that Lazar ever considered attending that university.

A = Associate Degree, C = certificate, B = Bachelor Degree

To summarize, during the years Lazar would have been working on his undergraduate degree, the College Blue Book only gives a handful of possibilities, none of which Lazar would have chosen for himself. I have extensively researched contemporary course catalogs and can confirm that degree programs specifically focused on electronics with the name electronics were extremely rare in California at that time. In fact, I couldn’t find any such programs outside of the ones mentioned in the Blue Book, except for one.

In 1976, when Lazar began attending Pierce College to transfer somewhere to become an engineer, UC Los Angeles changed the name of its Electrical Engineering course to Electrical and Electronics Engineering.

Perhaps because this course was nothing new except for its name, the College Blue Book didn’t include it as a new addition with the new name, or UCLA simply didn’t report it to the editors of the book. Either way, the University’s own Course Catalogue is more reliable on this matter. Some students from this time would also appear in the 1980 yearbook who refered to their bachelor’s degree simply as electronics. Given how rare a bachelor’s in electronics was in California, the fact that the only university program Lazar could have transferred to was the electronics course at UCLA, and that Lazar always claimed to have had an electronics degree, might be more than just a coincidence.

Bob Lazar never mentioned that he went to UCLA or to any other college to get his bachelor’s, for that matter. A police report from 1990, stated that he claimed to have gotten his bachelor’s in Physics and Electronic Technology from the diploma mill Pacifica University in 1978.

Source: https://www.papooselake.org/

Given the comments made by Gene Huff (see: part 1), which ultimately had to come from Lazar himself, it is doubtful that Lazar bought a bachelor’s degree from Pacifica. It is unlikely that Lazar would mention a degree with a fake name (Physics and Electronics), with an impossible time schedule of only 2 years (76–78), from a fake correspondence university (Pacifica), and provide this information to a police officer in a criminal case where his character itself was questioned by the authorities. Neither the police report nor Gene Huff’s email were written by Bob, even if he was ultimately the source for both. Both are secondhand information and should be treated with healthy skepticism as opposed to blind acceptance or dismissal.

In 1993, Bob claimed that he went to Caltech before attending MIT, suggesting that the latter might have been in 1982 (Source: papooselake.org). From this, it was assumed that Lazar claimed to have been an undergraduate at Caltech. During the same Q&A where he made these ambiguous claims, Lazar was asked if he joined any of the houses at Caltech, to which he replied that he didn’t. While it is not impossible for a student to not join a house at Caltech, it is unlikely for an undergraduate to do so. Typically, undergrads were strongly encouraged to join one of the official houses at Caltech. Given that Bob didn’t, it is likely that Lazar never pursued a bachelor’s degree at Caltech, making the UCLA hypothesis a slighlty more plausible explanation.

According to Bob’s biography, Los Alamos Labs sent him to MIT to study there.

I’d taken what I thought was a step in the right direction, was grateful to the folks at Meson for sending me to MIT to further my education…

Considering that Bob didn’t reside in Los Alamos before 1982, it would have been difficult for him to obtain a master’s degree in Physics from MIT in the year 1982. Consequently, based on the dates mentioned in the police report (1982 and 1985), an argument could be made to revesrse the insitutions making it so that Bob obtained his master’s degrees from Caltech in 1982 and MIT in 1985. Generally speaking Caltech would not accept a student for the graduate program if the student already had a master’s degree from another institution. The claim of Bob acquiring a master’s degree from Caltech in 1982 is further supported by Jim Tagliani, who:

“worked with Lazar at Fairchild Industries in Los Angeles in 1981” and stated that he “had no doubts at all about Lazar having studied at Caltech.” (Source: Beyond Roswell)

Tagliani could only have seen Bob at Caltech in either 1981 or 1982, and both dates align with a one-year engineering master’s course at Caltech (from fall 1981 to spring 1982). While it should be noted that Tagliani, like John Lear, is or was a friend of Lazar’s, we should keep in mind that Tagliani worked at the Tonopah Test Range and held a top-secret or Q clearance.

Returning to UCLA hypothesis for a moment, where Bob was expected to obtain his undergraduate Electrical and Electronics Engineering degree in 1980, one might wonder why he did not appear in the 1980 yearbook if he had indeed received the degree. The most likely answer would be that he did not complete the degree, and as a result, his photo would was not included in the yearbook. On his marriage certificate of 1980 (which was issued after the end of the school year), he indicated that his highest level of education completed was 12 years and that he was employed as an Electronics Engineer proving that he did not get a degree in that year.

(Source: papooselake.org)

Typically, it is not legally permissible to refer to oneself as an engineer without a degree. Therefore, Bob’s statements would make more sense if he had completed his studies but failed to obtain a degree.

Considering that Bob had fraudulent credits for History and English courses, UCLA could have declined to grant him a degree. Receiving a degree from UCLA without addressing those fraudulent credits would have been impossible, and this discrepancy may have been discovered too late when UCLA had to verify his credits from Pierce, Pacifica, Northridge, and UCLA for the electronics degree.

It is possible that UCLA would have offered to grant him the degree the following year if Bob managed to complete his missing courses by then, but by then Lazar might have had other plans.

In his biography, Bob stated:

“I was earning money and attending school at Caltech by this time. I was studying electronics there mainly because the people at Fairchild thought that was the best use of my time.”

If this statement is true and Bob did not obtain a degree from UCLA, it would make sense why Fairchild would encourage him to pursue a degree from Caltech. It is important to note that a bachelor’s degree is not a strict requirement for admission to Caltech. What matters are the relevant courses and exceptional grades that are required to be considered for the master’s program. Bob allegedly fulfilled both criteria and had an entire year to replace his fraudulent credits from Pacifica University. This way, his efforts to obtain a degree would not have been in vain, and could could culminate in a better degree than he would have gotten from UCLA.

Although it is true that the degree Bob would have earned from Caltech was officially called “Electrical Engineering” and not “Electrical and Electronics Engineering,” considering that he primarily worked with electronics and received his degree for his accomplishments from UCLA at Caltech (allegedly), it is not unthinkable for Bob to refer to his degree as electronics, just as he referred to his occupation as electronics engineering. These two programs, despite having different names, were fundamentally equivalent. Additionally, it is worth noting that UCLA also used to refer to the degree as Electrical Engineering before 1976, so the two degrees were essentially one and the same. Bob spent four years pursuing one degree and an additional year pursuing the other. It would not be unneceptable to call a degree electronics in those circuimstances.

Bob would have finished his master’s in 1982, the same year he started working at Los Alamos Labs. According to Bob, he would eventually work in the weapons division (Source: papooselake.org) and then went to MIT, where he obtained his master’s degree in physics possibly in 1985. In recent years, Bob told Joe Rogan that the jeopardy surrounding his education was due to his involvement with a weapon banned by international treaties, and he was sent to MIT to learn the necessary physics to complete that weapon project.

If this is true, then his thesis, written to complete his master’s at MIT, would have been classified and, consequently, never made public. Therefore, the statement Lazar made to Rogan might be true, indicating that the only public record from MIT that could have substantiated his educational background was never publicly accessible.

Thesis holds related to government restrictions The Committee on Graduate Programs recognizes that certain government agencies that sponsor research may require that theses be submitted for security review before they can be placed in the MIT Libraries or published. In the event that the agency does not permit immediate public disclosure of a thesis, this does not preclude its acceptance, but the Vice Chancellor will consider a thesis hold request of up to 90 days. If a longer agency review period is required, the student may ask the Vice President for Research for an extension of the hold. A student should not embark on such a thesis without prior approval from the funding agency that the work may be published upon thesis completion. (Source: MIT)

Considering Bob’s absence from the UCLA yearbook, which typically does not include graduates in higher education, and the fact that Caltech did not require a thesis, while his MIT thesis was classified, it is possible that no public record exists that can definitively prove Lazar’s attendance at these institutions. While this explanation is supported by some circumstantial evidence, we cannot ignore the fact that this explanation itself is remarkably convenient, as it cannot be confirmed or denied, at least for now. This state of affairs is would have been also advantageous for the government. If Bob Lazar had indeed worked on secret weapons, held a Q clearance, possessed master’s degrees in engineering and physics from Caltech and MIT, and had absolutely no public record of any of these accomplishments, he would have been an ideal candidate for the most secretive and classified programs in existence.

Lazar’s actions raise more questions than answers; however, that doesn’t mean that his past behavior is unexplainable. Further studies into Lazar’s background could help us discover the truth behind his claims and therefore the possbility of him being partiyally truthful should not be discounted.