2002 Early Achievement Award

Presented to: Major John F. Raquet, Ph.D.

Citation: For his remarkable contributions to the advancement of satellite-based navigation and positioning technologies for both military and civilian applications.

Major John F. Raquet, Ph.D. is an associate professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the Air Force Institute of Technology where he is responsible for teaching and for research relating to GPS and inertial navigation systems. Prior to this assignment, he worked on INS/GPS integrations for flight reference systems at Holloman Air Force Base (AFB), New Mexico.

Maj. Raquet was at the 746th Test Squadron at Holloman AFB from 1991-1995 where he was the originator and lead engineer for the development of the CIGTF High Accuracy Post-processing Reference System (CHAPS), which generate highly accurate time space position information. Although CHAPS was intended as an interim flight reference solution, the development effort was so successful that the CHAPS continues to be used as the primary flight reference system for the 746th Test Squadron.

While at the University of Calgary, Maj. Raquet invented a novel approach for performing carrier-phase integer ambiguity resolution using a regional network of reference receivers—the NetAdjust method. The University of Calgary implemented this approach in an advanced real-time software that has already been licensed in South Korea and is being licensed in Japan. Maj. Raquet’s contributions at AFIT also include revamping a GPS course, initiating a new seminar in guidance, navigation, and control, and advising doctoral and master’s degree students.

Maj. Raquet has served as a session chair, program chair, and general chair of ION conferences as well as in various roles on the ION Council, including Central Region Member-at-Large, Central Region Vice President, and Student Awards Chair.

He received his Ph.D. in geomatics engineering from The University of Calgary, his M.S. in aeronautical/astronautical engineering from M.I.T., and a B.S. in astronautical engineering from the U.S. Air Force Academy.