2011 Annual Awards

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).

Dr. Samuel M. Burka Award
Recipient: Dr. Penina Axelrad, Ben K. Bradley, James Donna, Megan Mitchell, and Dr. Shan Mohiuddin
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: Paul M. Novak
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.

Early Achievement Award
Recipient: Dr. Samer Khanafseh
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
Recipient: Capt Jason Gossett
The Superior Achievement Award recognizes individuals who are practicing navigators and have made outstanding contributions to the advancement of navigation.

Colonel Thomas L. Thurlow Award
Recipient: Dr. John Betz
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. Martin J. Unwin
The Tycho Brahe Award is given in memory or 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 for the advancement of navigation, a civilian aviation instruction, a teacher at Berkeley and Stanford, and an author..

Captain P.V.H. Weems Award
Recipient: Clyde E. Edgar, Jr.
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.