Stanford Professor, Dubbed ‘Father of GPS,’, Wins Distinguished 2016 Marconi Prize

Dr. Bradford Parkinson, who is thought of as the Father of GPS, is set to win the 2016 Marconi Prize.

Today, the global positioning system (GPS) is something nearly everyone uses on a regular basis, but it wasn’t always the case. During its original developments, the system was denied funding due to lack of probable use. Nearly 50 years later, Dr. Bradford Parkinson, who is largely responsible for its creation and success, is winning the prolific Marconi Prize for this very technology.

Parkinson, currently a professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics at Stanford, is going to receive the honor. The Marconi Prize is a prestigious award given out to the best and brightest in communication and information science. It is given annually, along with $100,000 of prize money. It is only given to those who create technology that helps humanity, which the GPS tracking and navigation system undoubtedly does.

The development of GPS began back in 1972, when Parkinson was a colonel in the Air Force. He belonged to a USAF program called 621B, where satellites were going to be used for a new global navigation system. Parkinson has previously represented the idea to the government, but they denied funding. It wasn’t until this project for the Air Force that it became a reality. There were still budget issues, but Parkinson didn’t back down and instead proceeded with his sketches, which he still has to this day.

Eventually, Parkinson got the green light in December 1973, which resulted in the very first GPS satellite being released a few years later. There are now 30 GPS satellites that circle the planet, all thanks to Parkinson’s attributions to science and his refusal to give up.

He had previously had a career for the U.S. Naval Academy when he studied navigation, in addition to having a Master of Science at MIT. He was also in charge of teaching astronauts about satellite operations. After developing the GPS, he continued to work in the same field of work, eventually teaching at Stanford. He has shown his passion for teaching some of the brightest individuals in the field:

 “It wasn’t just my colleagues in Aero/Astro who were very skilled, but the young men and women I taught were the absolute cream of the universities of the United States. The best and the brightest. I’m still amazed at the things we accomplished. It was just awesome.”

Though the technology has helped with GPS tracking, mapping and navigational purposes, he still sometimes jokes that he wishes people could still read a map the old-fashioned way. Nevertheless, he will receive the prestigious 2016 Marconi Prize, a great honor to anyone in the field of communications.