Raymond J. Leopold is one of the three engineers who in late 1987 conceived of and later designed the

Iridium satellite constellation The Iridium satellite constellation provides L band voice and data information Pass (spaceflight), coverage to satellite phones, satellite messenger communication devices and integrated transceivers. Iridium Communications owns and operates the ...

, the first realization of global, wireless, personal communications.

Career

Leopold joined

Motorola Motorola, Inc. () was an American multinational telecommunications company based in Schaumburg, Illinois. It was founded by brothers Paul and Joseph Galvin in 1928 and had been named Motorola since 1947. Many of Motorola's products had been ...

in 1987 after having spent a career in the

U.S. Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the air service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is one of the six United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Tracing its origins to 1 ...

where he held a variety of technical and technical management positions. He directed the development of communications systems at the Electronics Systems Division in Massachusetts. He served two

tours Tours ( ; ) is the largest city in the region of Centre-Val de Loire, France. It is the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Departments of France, department of Indre-et-Loire. The Communes of France, commune of Tours had 136,463 inhabita ...

The Pentagon The Pentagon is the headquarters building of the United States Department of Defense, in Arlington County, Virginia, across the Potomac River from Washington, D.C. The building was constructed on an accelerated schedule during World War II. As ...

, one in the

Office of the Secretary of Defense The Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) is a headquarters-level staff of the United States Department of Defense. It is the principal civilian staff element of the U.S. Secretary of Defense, and it assists the Secretary in carrying out au ...

and one on the Air Staff. He taught for over five years at the

United States Air Force Academy The United States Air Force Academy (USAFA) is a United States service academies, United States service academy in Air Force Academy, Colorado, Air Force Academy Colorado, immediately north of Colorado Springs, Colorado, Colorado Springs. I ...

Colorado Colorado is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States. It is one of the Mountain states, sharing the Four Corners region with Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. It is also bordered by Wyoming to the north, Nebraska to the northeast, Kansas ...

, and worked in

research and development Research and development (R&D or R+D), known in some countries as OKB, experiment and design, is the set of innovative activities undertaken by corporations or governments in developing new services or products. R&D constitutes the first stage ...

for four years at the

Air Force Weapons Laboratory The Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) is a scientific research and development detachment of the United States Air Force Materiel Command dedicated to leading the discovery, development, and integration of direct-energy based aerospace warf ...

Albuquerque Albuquerque ( ; ), also known as ABQ, Burque, the Duke City, and in the past 'the Q', is the List of municipalities in New Mexico, most populous city in the U.S. state of New Mexico, and the county seat of Bernalillo County, New Mexico, Bernal ...

. He was also an

adjunct professor An adjunct professor is a type of academic appointment in higher education who does not work at the establishment full-time. The terms of this appointment and the job security of the tenure vary in different parts of the world, but the term is gen ...

of electrical engineering at

George Washington University The George Washington University (GW or GWU) is a Private university, private University charter#Federal, federally-chartered research university in Washington, D.C., United States. Originally named Columbian College, it was chartered in 1821 by ...

, and he had been a senior lecturer at

MIT The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of modern technology and sc ...

and had chaired the Industry Advisory Board for the Aero/Astro Department. He has also lectured at

Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

Education

Leopold earned three degrees in electrical engineering, a

bachelor's degree A bachelor's degree (from Medieval Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six years ...

from the

in 1967, a

master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional prac ...

from

North Carolina State University North Carolina State University (NC State, North Carolina State, NC State University, or NCSU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Raleigh, North Carolina, United States. Founded in 1887 and p ...

in 1968, and a

Ph.D. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

from the

University of New Mexico The University of New Mexico (UNM; ) is a public research university in Albuquerque, New Mexico, United States. Founded in 1889 by the New Mexico Territorial Legislature, it is the state's second oldest university, a flagship university in th ...

in 1973. He was also honored with a Doctor of Telecommunications Management Degree from

South Dakota School of Mines and Technology The South Dakota School of Mines & Technology (South Dakota Mines, SD Mines, or SDSM&T) is a public university in Rapid City, South Dakota. It is governed by the South Dakota Board of Regents and was founded in 1885. South Dakota Mines offers b ...

in 1997. He has completed Executive Education courses at the

Harvard Business School Harvard Business School (HBS) is the graduate school, graduate business school of Harvard University, a Private university, private Ivy League research university. Located in Allston, Massachusetts, HBS owns Harvard Business Publishing, which p ...

(Sloan), The University of California (Berkeley), The Center for Creative Leadership, and The Defense Systems Management College.

Iridium satellite constellation

The Iridium system integrates a

packet-switched In telecommunications, packet switching is a method of grouping data into short messages in fixed format, i.e. '' packets,'' that are transmitted over a digital network. Packets consist of a header and a payload. Data in the header is used b ...

architecture within its globally deployed constellation of satellites together with the

circuit-switched Circuit switching is a method of implementing a telecommunications network in which two network nodes establish a dedicated communications channel ( circuit) through the network before the nodes may communicate. The circuit guarantees the full ...

architecture of the

public switched telephone network The public switched telephone network (PSTN) is the aggregate of the world's telephone networks that are operated by national, regional, or local telephony operators. It provides infrastructure and services for public telephony. The PSTN consists o ...

. It was created by Leopold and Bary Bertiger and Ken Peterson.

Awards and honors

* Pioneer Award, Mobile Satellite Users' Association, May 2008 (with Bary Bertiger and Ken Peterson) "... for the Invention of the Iridium Satellite System" * Laureate for Space,

Aviation Week and Space Technology ''Aviation Week & Space Technology'', often abbreviated ''Aviation Week'' or ''AW&ST'', is the flagship magazine of the Aviation Week Network, a division of Informa. The weekly magazine is available in print and online, reporting on the aero ...

, March 1997 "for the Invention of the Iridium (Satellite) Personal Communications System (with Bary Bertiger and Ken Peterson) * Biennial Communications Award, American Institute of Aeronautical and Astronautical Engineers (AIAA), May 1998 "...for inventing LEO Mobile Communications, IRIDIUM Satellite System, and for developing systems architecture, directing systems engineering, creating global TDMA/FDMA telephony concept, and initiating a multibillion-dollar business." (with Bary Bertiger and Ken Peterson) * The IEEE Third Millennium Medal, Institute of Electrical & Electronics Engineers (IEEE), March 2000 "... for leadership in the field of wireless communications." * Fellow of the IEEE, Institute of Electrical & Electronics Engineers (IEEE), January 1997 “...for leadership and contributions to worldwide satellite communications and personal wireless.” * Dan Noble Fellow, Motorola, Inc., November 1995, Motorola’s Highest Technical Award “... for leadership in creative and innovative technical contributions and, in particular, for his role in co-inventing the overall Iridium satellite cellular communications system and in gaining its critical global backing.”

Publications

* Motorola's IRIDIUM system: low-Earth orbit global cellular communications network, R. J. Leopold, Antennas and Propagation Society International Symposium, 1992. * The Iridium Communications Systems, R. J. Leopold, Singapore ICCS/ISITA '92. 'Communications on the Move', 1992. * The IRIDIUM communications system, R. J. Leopold; A. Miller, Microwave Symposium Digest, 1993. * The IRIDIUM communications system, R. J. Leopold; A. Miller, IEEE Potentials,1993. * The IRIDIUM TM/SM1 Personal Communication System, M. Borota; K. Johnson; R. J. Leopold; A. Miller, VLSI Circuits, 1994. * Low-earth orbit global cellular communications network, R. J. Leopold, Communications, 1991. * CELESTRITM Ka-Band sharing, R. J. Leopold, Aerospace Conference, 1998.

Gallery

Dr._Raymond_J._Leopold.jpg, Dr. Leopold showing an Iridium Satellite model and Iridium Satellite Phone. Ray_Leopold_Air_Force.jpg, Ray Leopold pictured with a T-38.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Leopold, Raymond J. Living people American electrical engineers Scientists from Chicago United States Air Force Academy alumni North Carolina State University alumni University of New Mexico alumni Engineers from Illinois Military personnel from Illinois 1946 births