Professor Jeff Carlson was a Human scientist in 1947, when the three Ferengi, Quark, Rom, and Nog, crash landed in Roswell, New Mexico, after having accidentally traveled back in time from the year 2372. Along with his fiancee, Faith Garland, a nurse with the United States Army Air Forces, he was assigned to the team investigating the three aliens, whom the military feared were part of an alien invasion force. In that capacity, Carlson initiated the attempts to communicate with the Ferengi, a task which was impossible until Rom was able to repair their universal translators.