Drs. Ivan A. Getting and Bradford W. Parkinson were awarded the 2003 Draper Prize Tuesday night in recognition of their technological achievements in the development of the Global Positioning System (GPS). Getting and Parkinson will share the $500,000 award and receive gold medals at a ceremony in D.C., sponsored by the award's administrator, the National Academy of Engineering.

The Draper Prize is one of engineering's highest honors, and it is awarded annually to individuals or groups whose work demonstrates a "reduction to practice"--a proven innovation--that contributes to human welfare and freedom. It was established in 1988 at the request of Draper Laboratory to honor the memory of Dr. Charles Stark Draper, the "father of inertial navigation," and to increase public understanding of the contributions of engineering and technology to society.

"GPS is an achievement that deservedly joins the ranks of previous Draper Prize honors, such as the semiconductor microchip, the jet engine, satellite technology, fiber optics, and the Internet," said Dr. Wm. A. Wulf, president of the National Academy of Engineering.

GPS was developed initially for the guidance, navigation, and control of military aircraft, missiles, and satellites in space, as well as to aid people on the ground.

Ivan Getting, president emeritus of the Aerospace Corp., in the 1950s envisioned a system that would use satellite transmitters to pinpoint with extreme accuracy locations anywhere on Earth. After it is was shown that GPS could work, Getting became a tireless advocate for making sure the complex system was actually built.

Bradford Parkinson was Department of Defense program director for the original definition of the GPS system architecture, as well as for its engineering, development, demonstration, and implementation. He continues to work at Stanford University as principal investigator for several GPS research projects, further honing its accuracy and using it to control such things as helicopters, farm tractors, and spacecraft.

FMI: www.nae.edu