James Nelson Benford is an American physicist, High-Power Microwave (HPM) scientist, book author, science-fiction writer, and entrepreneur,[1] best known for introducing novel technological concepts and conjectures related to the exploration of outer space, among these the design of laser-driven sailships,[2] the possible use of co-orbital objects (moon, asteroids) by alien probes to spy on earth,[3][4] and the appraisal of technical and safety issues associated with the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI).

[7] He has two children, the eldest being Dominic Benford, an astrophysicist and the Program Scientist for the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope.

[18] At PI Benford published research papers on particle beams, fusion, pulsed power and HPM, relativistic magnetron and virtual cathode oscillator (vircator) technology.

[25] Benford is a leader and consultant at Breakthrough Starshot, a research and engineering project aiming to send probes to the nearby stars within the long term.

[24] His most cited research papers[38] are: His most recent science fiction writings are: Benford has been awarded US invention patents for: Particle beam injection system(1974),[49] and Systems and methods for generating high power, wideband microwave radiation using variable capacitance voltage multiplication (2007).