2014 Distinguished Service Award

Presented to: Patricia Doherty

Citation: For extraordinary service to The Institute of Navigation.

Ms. Patricia Doherty has served as the president of The Institute of Navigation (ION) from January 2013 – January 2015. Her term of office has been characterized by ION becoming involved in the larger mission of Positioning, Navigation, and Time (PNT) education world-wide.

For the past five years, Ms. Doherty has been the catalyst and leader of an initiative to help developing countries derive social and economic benefits from the satellite-based technology of PNT by organizing and chairing prominent ION members to teach and interact with teams of professors and scientists from African universities where sustainable developments are now evidenced.

Additionally, Ms. Doherty has participated in the ION’s Pacific PNT symposium (initiated in 2011) with the goal of bringing together technical experts and policy leaders to increase global cooperative interoperability among Pacific Rim nations. Closer to home, she was instrumental in the organization, realization, and success of the ION GNSS+ tutorial program.

Ms. Doherty is currently the ION president and has served ION in numerous volunteer offices, including the ION’s Executive Committee, Council, as chair of the New England Section, as a member of the Satellite Division Executive Committee, and as program and general chair of the ION GNSS meeting (2010 and 2011, respectively). She is the co-recipient of the ION’s Burka Award (1995), ION Weems Award (2014), and is an ION Fellow (2012).