2001 Hays Award

Presented to: Ms. Ann Ciganer

Citation: For her contributions in preserving and promoting the Global Positioning System (GPS) as an essential technology for worldwide civilian and military use.

Ms. Ann Ciganer joined Trimble in 1989 as director of government relations to develop a strategic policy direction for the corporation. Since 1995, Ms. Ciganer has served as vice president of strategic policy, and has taken a leadership position for the corporation in working with the U.S. government, and other governments internationally to help shape a stable and predictable policy environment for GPS. She is a principal founder of the U.S. GPS Industry Council, and currently serves as the group's executive director of policy. Ms. Ciganer developed corporate and industry positions for the National Research Council, the National Academy of Public Administration, and the RAND Critical Technologies Institute (CTI) studies on the future and management of GPS. She provided corporate and industry positions for the Interagency Working Group (IWG) that developed policy inputs leading to the Presidential Decision Directive (PDD)—a comprehensive national policy on GPS, announced by the vice president in 1996. The PDD provided, for the first time, formal confirmation of the dual civil-military nature of GPS and recognized the United States commitment to provide continuous availability of GPS worldwide, free of direct user fees. Ms. Ciganer, together with members of the council, took the lead in working with Congress to include the provisions of the PDD in statutes such as the Defense Authorization Act of FY '98.

In 1997, Ms. Ciganer rapidly organized an emergency response team at the 1997 World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC-97) in Geneva, working with the U.S. government and GPS-user industries to prevent a harmful overlay of Mobile Satellite Services (MSS) communication signal on the GPS signal used by millions of commercial and allied military users worldwide. She organized the U.S. industry response team that participated in International Telecommunications Union (ITU) studies of the feasibility of this proposal for a decision at WRC-2000.

Prior to Trimble, Ms. Ciganer was a research analyst at SRI International and before that, in the Center for Urban and Regional Policy Analysis, where she conducted studies for the selection and use of technologies for integration in the infrastructure of developing countries. She led numerous international research projects in Latin America and the Asia-Pacific. She was the first president of the Joint Venture: Silicon Valley Defense Space Consortium and was chair of the Bay Area Regional Technology Alliance.