2022 Distinguished Service Award

Presented to: Dr. Frank van Diggelen

Citation: For extraordinary service to The Institute of Navigation.

Dr. Frank van Diggelen has served as the president of the Institute of Navigation (ION) from January 2021–January 2023. His term in office has been shaped by the effects of the international COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting requirements to strategically manage the ION’s programs during the pandemic, as well as the post-pandemic recovery. This included the expansion of ION’s meeting programs to a virtual environment, which facilitated access to PNT technical information to a worldwide audience including those unable to attend ION conferences in person. During this same period, the ION expanded its webinar program to provide both technical PNT webinars as well as webinars on general interest PNT topics. Additionally, his term included the execution of transitioning ION’s technical journal, NAVIGATION: Journal of the Institute of Navigation, to a fully virtual open-access platform and subsequent improvements to the ION membership dues’ structure.

Additional personal achievements during Dr. van Diggelen’s term in office include serving as a volunteer instructor in March 2022 for the ION’s Africa Outreach Program in Morocco, a program that provides PNT workshops for scientists, engineers, and graduate students from the developing countries in Africa on the use of GNSS for applications with societal benefits. Working with the ION Council, Dr. van Diggelen led the expansion of the ION’s ethics’ policy to define fabrication and falsification in ION’s publication policy and ensured the adoption of inclusive language best practices for ION authors.

Dr. van Diggelen has been actively involved in the ION since 1992. He has been a program and general chair of the ION GNSS+ meeting, and has served on multiple committees/ divisions including the Satellite Division Chair (2016–2018). Dr. van Diggelen is a past recipient of the ION’s Kepler Award (2015) and the ION Thurlow Award (2010). He is a Fellow of the ION, RIN, and the IEEE.