50 GNSS Leaders to Watch

May 1, 2009 By: GPS World Staff GPS World

Meeting GNSS Challenges 2009-2010

George Davis
President | Emergent Space Technologies

George Davis

"Navigation above GNSS constellations such as GPS is a critical operations concept for a variety of military and civil space missions, particularly in the arena of space superiority. Emergent Space Technologies has developed expertise in this technology for NASA, NOAA, and the DoD. Our knowledge of GPS weak-signal tracking, fast signal acquisition, and Kalman filtering, and how they can be applied to real-time navigation in geosynchronous and highly elliptical orbits, is increasingly in demand."

Bill Bollwerk
Head | U.S. Naval Observatory

Bill Bollwerk

"Future positioning, navigation, and timing (PNT) user equipment will integrate all sources of PNT information (GNSS, terrestrial, autonomous, clocks, biologically inspired, among others) needed to meet DoD requirements. The continued integration of multimedia and PNT is another step in the way forward for Department of Defense (DoD) operations in the 2025 timeframe. Timing S&T solutions will explore optical clocks and network technologies for better time precision and dissemination. All of this will demand greater PNT plug-and-play technology."

Kristine M. Larson
Professor | Department of Aerospace Engineering Sciences, University of Colorado

Kristine M. Larson

"I began working with GPS as a geophysics graduate student in the late 1980s. Thankfully I ignored advice that there was no future in GPS! In my early career I used GPS to measure plate tectonics. Recently I have focused on more dynamic geophysical signals, including ground motions due to earthquakes, volcanoes, and ice-sheet dynamics, while also applying GPS to precise timing and relativity. I am currently focusing on use of GPS as a remote sensing tool. Recently we found that GPS receivers installed by geophysicists and surveyors can be used to measure variations in surface soil moisture. These data are needed both for weather prediction and long-term climate modeling."

Chaminda Basnayake
Senior Research Engineer | Electrical and Controls Integration, General Motors Research & Developement

Chaminda Basnayake

"GPS and wireless communications have opened up many new possibilities for the automotive industry. Prime examples include OnStar and GM R&D's vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communication-based capabilities. Collaborative industry efforts in this area under my technical leadership achieved major interoperability, prototype, and standards-development milestones last year. My focus now is to work toward further enhancing our capabilities by utilizing GNSS and other in-vehicle technologies."

Bernd Eisfeller
Professor and Head | Institute of Space Applications, University of the Federal Armed Forces, Germany

Bernd Eisfeller

"Twenty research associates are currently paid by external projects. This means that we have always to be very active in the acquisition of research and development contracts in the field of navigation. Our main topics of research in this context are signal design and compatibility issues, Galileo evolution, software radio technologies, and multi-sensor integration. Additionally, we will be active in education and teaching on the international level."