2004 Fellow

Presented to: Dr. M. Elizabeth Cannon

Citation: For her sustained contributions in the field of global navigation satellite systems, including differential GPS, kinematic carrier phase methods and applications, integration, and educational efforts.

Dr. M. Elizabeth Cannon is a professor in the Department of Geomatics Engineering at the University of Calgary. She has been active in GPS research since 1984 in areas such as precise kinematic positioning for land, air, and marine applications and also GPS/INS.

During the past 12 years, Dr. Cannon has been a leader in many GPS-related research areas, including attitude determination using GPS, multipath parameter estimation, precision farming based on GPS and GIS, precise positioning using GPS carrier-phase integer ambiguity resolution, multiple reference station RTK positioning, precision aircraft-to-aircraft positioning, receiver performance characterization under high dynamics, and GPS augmentation with other sensors.

Dr. Cannon has raised over $7 million dollars to support her research programs, and has published 75 journal articles and more than 120 conference papers. Flowing from this research, she has co-developed six different GPS-related software products, which have been licensed to over 180 organizations in 18 countries. She has taught over 2,000 professionals in short courses in North America and many European countries.

In addition to her direct research contributions, Dr. Cannon has taken leadership roles in several diverse professional associations. She has received over 30 different awards, including 11 best presentation awards at ION GPS/GNSS conferences and eight awards for journal and conference papers, Canada's Top 40 Award, and eight different awards recognizing her outstanding teaching abilities. She is also a fellow of the Canadian Academy of Engineering.

Dr. Cannon is actively engaged in the community-at-large, giving more than 200 presentations on GPS to students and teachers, as well as community, professional and government groups. She held the NSERC/Petro-Canada Chair for Women in Science and Engineering from 1997 to 2002, which was aimed at increasing the representation of women in science and engineering.

Dr. Cannon holds a B.S.c. in mathematics and a B.S.c., M.S.c. and Ph.D. in geomatics engineering. She is an ION past-president and she currently serves as vice chair of the ION Satellite Division. Dr. Cannon was general chair for the ION GPS 1996 and was awarded the ION Satellite Division's Kepler Award in 2001 for sustained and significant contributions to satellite navigation.