2001 Early Achievement Award

Presented to: Ms. Karen Van Dyke

Citation: For her continuous and dedicated contributions and recognized leadership in the field of satellite navigation. Specifically, for her pioneering efforts to develop and deploy a system to increase integrity monitoring of Global Positioning System (GPS) signals through the use of Receiver Autonomous Integrity Monitoring (RAIM) and Fault Detection and Exclusion (FDE).

Ms. Karen Van Dyke is a member of the technical staff with the Center for Navigation at the U.S. Department of Transportation Volpe Center. Ms. Van Dyke has conducted availability and integrity monitoring studies for aviation applications of GPS for all phases of flight.

She has achieved outstanding success in translating her technical knowledge into real-world applications in the field of aviation. She was the project lead of a Volpe Center team that designed, developed, and implemented GPS RAIM outage reporting systems for both the U.S. Air Force and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), which are used to brief GPS availability to pilots during pre-flight planning. She currently is working with the FAA to develop prediction models for WAAS and LAAS to support the Notice to Airmen (NOTAM) system. Ms. Van Dyke also has worked with Australian, German, and Chilean aviation authorities on the implementation of similar systems for use by pilots and air traffic control in these countries. Ms. Van Dyke recently was a member of a team that conducted a study for the Office of the Secretary of Transportation to identify and analyze GPS vulnerabilities and interference mitigation techniques for all modes of transportation. She is the recipient of the Award for Meritorious Achievement—the Silver Medal—from the Secretary of Transportation and the Superior Achievement Award—the Bronze Medal—from the DOT Research and Special Programs Administration. Ms. Van Dyke served as president of the Institute of Navigation from June 2000 to June 2001.