Manassas, Virginia, September 21, 2015 — The Institute of Navigation’s (ION) Satellite Division awarded Dr. Frank van Diggelen its Johannes Kepler Award September 18, 2015 at the ION GNSS+ Conference (Tampa, Florida) for his significant and fundamental contributions to the practical, affordable and enhanced use of satellite based navigation for consumer applications, especially for mobile handheld devices; contributions to GNSS interoperability; and dedication as a navigation educator.

Dr. Frank van Diggelen is technically recognized as the inventor of the coarse-time assisted GPS technique and the worldwide reference network needed to replace the ephemerides provided by the time-consuming GPS navigation message.  This allowed a GPS receiver to solve for its location under challenging conditions, and made GPS position fixing almost instant. He also developed receiver processing techniques that increased a receiver’s sensitivity, allowing GPS to work in weak-signal environments including in cell-phones in urban and indoor environments.

Dr. van Diggelen holds over 80 patents and has worked commercially for NAVSYS, Ashtech, Magellan, Global Locate and is currently Vice President of Technology for Broadcom.  He has published extensively and is the author of the popular textbook A-GPS: Assisted GPS, GNSS and SBAS (Artech House 2009). 

In addition to his commercial work he is an avid educator.  He is a Consulting Professor at Stanford University and has been teaching graduate level courses for the past six years; and has lectured for numerous public and private organizations, including the ION Satellite Division’s African Outreach Program this past year in Rwanda.  Most recently he collaborated on a massive open online course (MOOC) that was released last fall over Coursera to thousands of registered students.

Dr. van Diggelen started his career as a navigation officer in the South African Navy before going to college. He obtained his bachelor’s degree from the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa and a PhD in electrical engineering from Cambridge University, England.  He is currently serving as the ION Satellite Division’s Vice Chair.

The Johannes Kepler Award recognizes and honors an individual for sustained and significant contributions to the development of satellite navigation. It is the highest honor bestowed by the ION’s Satellite Division.

About ION

The Institute of Navigation is the world’s premier professional society dedicated to the advancement of the art and science of positioning, navigation and timing. The Institute is a national organization whose membership spans worldwide. Additional information about the ION can be found at http://www.ion.org.

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