Manassas, Virginia, October 6, 2015 – The Institute of Navigation (ION) announced that Dr. Gerald L. Mader was selected as an ION Congressional Fellow to serve a one-year fellowship consisting of an appointment to the professional staff of the Space, Science and Competitiveness Subcommittee of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation chaired by Senator John Thune (R-SD).
Dr. Mader received his Ph.D. from the University of Maryland and has worked at the National Geodetic Survey/NOAA in Silver Spring, Maryland for the past 34 years with a primary focus on developing extremely accurate positioning techniques using the Global Positioning System (GPS) for a wide variety of geodetic, geophysical and remote sensing applications. Dr. Mader served as the Chief of Geosciences Research Division.
Dr. Mader has been a member of the Institute of Navigation for 20 years and has presented numerous research papers at ION technical meetings. Selection as an ION Congressional Fellow is made based on applications and interviews with the ION’s Government Fellows Selection Committee. Dr. Mader said that he “is very excited and grateful for this opportunity and hopes to see his experience and knowledge contribute to better congressional understanding of issues facing the navigation and precise positioning communities.”
The ION Governments Fellows Program is designed to offer ION members a unique educational experience while providing the government, through either a Congressional or Executive Fellowship, a resource of technical experience and private sector perspectives that we hope will help foster effective public policy on the issues that affect our society and our profession.
The ION Congressional Fellowship is sponsored through the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Science and Engineering Fellowship Programs. A Congressional Fellows serves as a Science and Technology staffer for a Member of Congress or a Congressional Committee making practical contributions to the more effective use of scientific and technical knowledge in government, to educate the navigation and engineering community regarding the public policy process, and to broaden the perspective of the science, engineering and governmental communities regarding the value of such interaction.
About ION
The Institute of Navigation is the world’s premier professional society dedicated to the advancement of the art and science of positioning, navigation and timing. The Institute is a national organization whose membership spans worldwide. Additional information about the ION can be found at www.ion.org.