10/09/2009

Yesterday, President Obama handed out medals to some of the nation's most distinguished scientists. In particular, he bestowed the National Medal of Science to Rudolf Kalman, who has achieved a number of scientific milestones including the development of a problem-solving procedure that was used during the Apollo missions to navigate and control the vehicles — which ultimately became the foundation for GPS technology.

Kalman's breakthroughs were based on the foundations of control theory, which relates to technologies such as anti-lock brakes and GPS. It is certainly exciting to see the Obama administration recognize someone who played a critical role in developing technologies for our GPS-enabled world.