The ICNS Champion Award recognizes specific individual(s) who have significantly contributed to the development of communications, navigation, surveillance (CNS) technologies and/or the development of modern air-traffic management concepts and procedures. Both scientific and policy contributions are considered.
The nominee can be any individual from U.S., Europe, or any other ICAO countries. Affiliation with IEEE, AIAA or other sponsoring organizations is not required. Active support and engagement with current or previous ICNS Conferences is not a prerequisite for the nomination but will be considered in the evaluation.
Past Award Winners
2025
Paul Bosman
Paul Bosman has played a key role in the advancement of CNS technologies and has demonstrated strong support for the ICNS Conference. He has served the aviation community for more than 30 years. In his current role as manager of the ATM Infrastructure Division at EUROCONTROL’s Network Manager, he works closely with the European Commission, SESAR Joint Undertaking, SESAR Deployment Manager, EASA, and other air traffic management stakeholders.
2024
Dr. Thomas Gräupl
Dr. Thomas Gräupl, currently a senior lead expert at Frequentis Corporate Research, has previously served as a researcher and project manager at the Institute of Communications and Navigation of the German Aerospace Center (DLR) and the University of Salzburg. His contributions to the field of CNS, particularly in hybrid multi-link solutions, satellite communication, and broadband radio, have significantly impacted aeronautical communication.
2023
No winner selected
2022
Roy Oishi
Roy Oishi retired as an ARINC Fellow in 2010 after 20 years working in air-ground voice and data communications. He has more than 30 years’ experience in software related to the automatic testing of avionics equipment. He served as chairman and then executive secretary of the Airlines Electronic Engineering Committee (AEEC) developing aviation standards in support of member airlines in avionics design and development.
2021
Dr. Bernd Korn
Dr. Bernd Korn is the head of the Pilot Assistance Department at the Institute of Flight Guidance of the German Aerospace Center (DLR). The department comprises a staff of about 60 researchers. Main research topics of his department are flight guidance concepts and technologies, human machine interfaces in the cockpit, U-space/UTM and future ATM concepts / performance-based operations.
2020
Denise Ponchak
Ms. Denise S. Ponchak is currently a space communications consultant for Teltrium Solutions LLC supporting NASA Headquarters’ Space Communications and Navigation (SCaN) Program. Previously, she was the branch chief of the Communications Architectures, Networks and Systems Branch at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA) Glenn Research Center at Lewis Field in Cleveland, Ohio.
2019
Chris Wargo
Chris Wargo is no stranger to ICNS. He has been one of the participants of the NASA workshop on ICNS technologies for Advanced Future Air Transportation Systems organised in May 2001, which effectively was the first ICNS conference. He has over 30 years of experience developing and implementing telecommunication and information systems for the commercial and government sectors, with a specialty in the CNS systems associated with aviation mobile platforms.
2018
Steve Bradford & Michael Standar
Steve Bradford, in the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), and Michael Standar, in SESAR Joint Undertaking (SJU), have been leading the international harmonization activities of their respective organizations and have been instrumental at the discussion at global level and in particular in the ICAO.
2017
Diana Liang
Diana Liang was the first recipient of the ICNS Champion Award in 2017. Diana has dedicated herself towards the advancement of the CNS tools that support the aviation community’s needs of the future. She has successfully provided direction on the development and fielding of many of the FAA’s NextGen programs and enabling technologies.