The PEGG

May, 2000

APEGGA 2000
Summit Award Winners

Gérard Lachapelle, P.Eng., PhD

Gérard Lachapelle has contributed to the development and commercialization of satellite-based positioning and navigation technology, and to the training of engineering students and professionals. He has performed pioneering work related to the development of new methods and novel applications of the Global Positioning System (GPS), a complex constellation of 24 satellites gradually deployed during the last 20 years.

His involvement with GPS began in 1980 with Sheltech Canada, a division of Shell Canada Resources Ltd. He was a founding member of Calgary-based Nortech Surveys (Inc.) Canada, and Norstar Instruments. In 1988, he joined the University of Calgary and now serves as the head of the Department of Geomatics Engineering. He owns his own company, G. Lachapelle Consultant Inc.

His research has resulted in the development of procedures, algorithms and applications of GPS, effective and timely technology transfer methods and software to organizations worldwide, and in the training of personnel to exploit the new technology. Dr. Lachapelle has developed concepts and methods to reliably position moving platforms to within a few centimetres. Civilian and military applications investigated include aircraft-to-aircraft positioning, artillery positioning and precision farming.

He is one of the inventors of a patented cellular telephone positioning and emergency location system that has been transferred to, and successfully commercialized by Cell-Loc Inc.

In 1997, he was awarded the Johannes Kepler Award from the U.S.-based Institute of Navigation. He was the first non-American to receive this award. In 1999, he was conferred an Honorary Professorship from the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China and elected Full Member of the Russian Academy of Navigation and Motion Control.