2001 Fellow

Presented to: Dr. Rudolph M. Kalafus

Citation: For his significant individual contributions to the development of differential and airborne GNSS standards, differential GPS systems, and GPS integrity monitoring techniques.

Dr. Rudolph M. Kalafus currently heads the Core Technology group in the Military and Advanced Systems Division at Trimble Navigation, Ltd. He has been chair of the Radio Technical Commission for Maritime Service's Special Committee 104, "Recommended Standards for Differential GNSS Service," since its inception in 1983.

That committee developed the standards for differential GNSS broadcasts that have been adopted worldwide. More recently, the committee has developed standards for real-time kinematic applications. While at the Transportation Systems Center of the U.S. Department of Transportation from 1970 to 1987, Dr. Kalafus was active in aircraft navigation and surveillance system development, notably the Microwave Landing System and GPS. He played a key role in the early development of Receiver-Autonomous Integrity Monitoring techniques in GPS receivers. He also played a key role in the development of the U.S. Coast Guard radio beacon-based differential GPS broadcast network. He was active in the RTCA Special Committee 159, which developed aeronautical standards for GPS equipment.

He received his Ph.D. in electrical engineering from the University of Michigan in 1966 where he also received his B.S.E.E. and M.S.E.E.

Dr. Kalafus has been a member of the ION since 1979 and has served as both a technical chair and a general chair of the ION GPS Satellite Division meeting (1989-1990). He edited Volume III of the ION Special Issues on GPS, and was the co-editor of the section in Volume V entitled "Autonomous GPS Integrity Monitoring." Dr. Kalafus received the ION Satellite Division's Johannes Kepler Award in 1992.