The Annual Awards Program is sponsored by the Institute of Navigation to recognize individuals making significant contributions, or demonstrating outstanding performance, relating to the art and science of navigation. Nominations for these awards may be submitted by anyone, but all nominations must conform to ION nomination guidelines. Award recipients need not be members of the Institute. Details of the nomination process and forms are available online.

Click on recipient names for the award citation and the background information of the recipient(s).

Early Achievement Award
Recipient: Dr. Mark G. Petovello
The Early Achievement Award recognizes an individual early in his or her career who has made an outstanding achievement in the art and science of navigation.

Superior Achievement Award
Recipients: Major Daniel A. Roesch
The Superior Achievement Award recognizes individuals who are practicing navigators and have made outstanding contributions to the advancement of navigation.

Dr. Samuel M. Burka Award
Recipients: Dr. Suneel I. Sheikh and Dr. Darryll J. Pines
The Dr. Samuel M. Burka Award is given in memory of Dr. Samuel M. Burka, a dedicated public servant who devoted a long and distinguished career to the research and development of air navigation equipment and reviewing technical material for official publications. He retired from public service in 1958 and died several months later.

Norman P. Hays Award
Recipient: James D. Litton
The Norman P. Hays Award is given in memory of Norman P. Hays, an outstanding navigator, able engineer, and competent manager, who, after a distinguished career as an operational Air Force officer, demonstrated unusual ability as an executive in industry. His managerial career came to an untimely end with his accidental death on July 4, 1965.

Colonel Thomas L. Thurlow Award
Recipient: David J. Pietraszewski
The Colonel Thomas L. Thurlow Award is given in memory of Colonel Thomas L. Thurlow, U.S. Army Corps, a brilliant engineer, skillful pilot, and able officer who contributed significantly to the development and testing of navigation equipment and the training of navigators and pilots. He met an untimely death while flight testing a new compass in 1944.

Tycho Brahe Award
Recipient: Dr. Oliver Montenbruck
The Tycho Brahe Award is given in memory of Mary Tornich Janislawski, developer of the Mark II Plotter, a charter member of the ION, the first woman to have received an ION Annual Award, a civilian aviation instructor, a teacher at the University of California at Berkley and Stanford and a respected author. This award has been generously endowed by Col. Leonard Sugerman (USAF, Ret.), a past president of the Institute of Navigation (1970–1971).

Captain P.V.H. Weems Award
Recipient: Marvin B. May
The Captain P.V.H. Weems Award is given in memory of Captain Philip Van Horn Weems, U.S. Navy, a principal co-founder of the ION and an outstanding navigator and inventor whose methods and inventions had a major influence on both the U.S. Air Force and Navy. He is attributed with having patented the first method of performing navigation in space.

Distinguished Service Award
Recipient: James T. Doherty
The Distinguished Service Award is given for extraordinary service to The Institute of Navigation.