2026 Fellow

Presented to: Dr. Thomas Pany

Citation: For his sustained commitment to advancing new navigation concepts and signals through software-defined radio

Dr. Thomas Pany is a Professor of satellite navigation at the University of the Bundeswehr Munich. He is a nationally and internationally recognized expert in radio navigation receivers and Galileo. From 2001 to 2009, Dr. Pany served as a research associate and an assistant professor at the University of the Bundeswehr during a pivotal period in satellite navigation: the development of the Galileo system and the emergence of GNSS software-defined radio (SDR).

Dr. Pany developed the first Galileo/GPS SDR to demonstrate real-time performance. This achievement provided critical assessments for Galileo and connected him with leading international experts in SDR and receiver technology. He contributed to the ION GNSS SDR Metadata Standard. He made significant technical advances, including the creation of a real-time multi-frequency GNSS SDR suitable for reference stations, in-depth research on vector tracking, and the application of Fourier techniques for efficient signal acquisition.

Receivers and related technologies developed or supervised by Dr. Pany have enabled the processing of a wide range of proposed and real-world navigation signals, providing invaluable insights into their application: Galileo (first- and second-generation signals), LTE/5G, pseudolite signals, LEOPNT, Starlink, and 5G Non-Terrestrial Networks (NTN).

High precision has always been his focus, as demonstrated by his work in fixed-carrier-phase positioning with smartphones. Dr. Pany’s research on receiver algorithms, such as vector tracking and synthetic aperture processing, advanced his work and has benefited researchers at other institutions. Dr. Pany currently serves as an associate editor for NAVIGATION, The Journal of the Institute of Navigation, and has been a member of the ION GNSS+ program committee and the ION Council. Dr. Pany received his PhD in technical sciences (geodesy) from Graz University of Technology, where he earned Austria’s highest academic distinction (sub auspiciis).