Dr. Hasford is an old scientist who advocated the "Protoculture interference hypothesis," which postulated that an ancient extraterrestrial civilization exerted an influence on the evolution of Earth life and humans. He traveled to the island of Mayan numerous times to prove this idea, and he had no qualms about sidestepping other people's sensibilities in his pursuit. As a mentor to Aries Turner, he exerted a profound influence on her current efforts to uncover the mysteries of Mayan.