Who is Dr. Van Dorn from Things Not Seen and what is their importance?

Dr. Van Dorn is Alicia's father. Dr. Van Dorn is also an astronomer. Alicia's dad works with Bobby's dad to figure out what caused Bobby to become invisible and they start to try to figure out a way to reverse the invisibility. He is the one that ultimately determines how the electric blanket and the occurrence in the universe is what caused Bobby and Sheila to turn invisible.