The Golden Anniversaryof the

Minta Martin Lecture

“The Iridium Story: An Engineer's Eclectic Journey”

By

Raymond J. Leopold, Ph.D.Jerome Clarke Hunsaker

Visiting Professor of Aerospace Systems

Friday, April 23, 20044:00 – 5:30pm

Green Building – (54 - 100)

Department of Aeronautics & AstronauticsMassachusetts Institute of Technology

&The New England Section of the

American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics

The Lecturer

Dr. Raymond J. Leopold retired fromMotorola in 2003 where he had servedsequentially as the Vice President andChief Technical Officer of the SatelliteCommunications Group and later of theGlobal Telecom Solutions Sector. He isone of the three engineers who created

the Iridium® System; the first realization of worldwide, wireless,personal communications. He had served for five years on boththe Motorola Science Advisory Board and the MotorolaTechnical Action Council.

Dr. Leopold joined Motorola in 1987 after having spent acareer in the U.S. Air Force where he held a variety of technicalmanagement positions. He directed the development ofcommunications systems at the Electronics Systems Division inMassachusetts. He served two tours in the Pentagon; one inthe Office of the Secretary of Defense and one on the Air Staff.He taught at the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado, andworked in research and development for four years at the AirForce Weapons Laboratory in Albuquerque. He was also anAdjunct Professor of Electrical Engineering at GeorgeWashington University, and he has been a Senior Lecturer atMIT for the past seven years and has chaired their CDIOIndustry Advisory Board. He has also lectured at StanfordUniversity.

He earned degrees in electrical engineering; a bachelor’sdegree from the United States Air Force Academy in 1967, amaster’s degree from North Carolina State University in 1968,and a Ph.D. from the University of New Mexico in 1973. Hewas also honored with a Doctor of TelecommunicationsManagement Degree from South Dakota of Mines andTechnology in 1997. He has completed Executive Educationcourses at the Harvard Business School, MIT (Sloan), TheUniversity of California (Berkeley), The Center for CreativeLeadership, and The Defense Systems Management College.

Dr. Leopold is an Aviation Week and Space TechnologyLaureate for Space (1996) and an inductee in their Hall of Fameat the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C. Heis a recipient of the IEEE Third Millennium Medal and arecipient of the American Institute of Aeronautics andAstronautics (AIAA) Biennial Communications Award for 1998.He has been named a Fellow of The Institute of Electrical andElectronics Engineers (IEEE), and has served on theirCommittee on Engineering Accreditation Activities. He wasnamed a Motorola Distinguished Innovator in 1993.

Motorola also conferred their highest technical honor; theTitle of Dan Noble Fellow, upon him in 1995. He was named aMaster Innovator by Motorola in 2001. In 2003 he was named aDistinguished Alumnus of the University of New Mexico Schoolof Engineering. He served as a member of the EngineeringAccreditation Commission of The Accreditation Board forEngineering and Technology (ABET). He has been elected toPhi Kappa Phi, Tau Beta Pi, and Sigma Tau. Dr. Leopold holds27 U.S. patents and more than 75 patents in other countries.He is married and has six children.

The Lecture“The Iridium Story: An Engineer's Eclectic Journey”

Fifteen years ago a small team of people challengedthe aerospace industry to consider an alternative way to thinkabout satellite-based communications by employing aconstellation of satellites constructed and launched very quicklyusing innovative manufacturing techniques. They eventuallybuilt satellites at a peak rate of one every 4.3 days andsuccessfully launched 72 out of 72 satellites on 15 out of 15launchers from three countries in 12 months and 12 days, andin one period of 13 days put 14 satellites in orbit. They laterlaunched an additional 23 satellites without flawing their perfectsatellite-to-orbit record. Another of their same satellites is onpermanent display in the Smithsonian National Air and SpaceMuseum in Washington, D.C. Dr. Leopold draws from hisearlier, unusual military career where he learned from anonconforming maverick, John R. Boyd, who has been creditedwith changing the art of war. Engineers who learn how to dealwith the world, bureaucracies, regulators, and the like, need toground themselves with fundamental principles, while looking

everywhere for inspiration and newideas, which then allow them to

improve the world. Dr. Leopolddraws from authors and otherinspirational people and tellshis story of inspiration,principles and new ideasrelated to aviation andspace.

The Lectureship

The Minta Martin Lecture is delivered in conjunctionwith a professorship established at MIT fifty years ago in honorof Jerome Clarke Hunsaker, a leading figure in aviation and formany years Head of the MIT Aeronautical EngineeringDepartment. The late Major Lester D. Gardner, founder of theInstitute of Aerospace Sciences, conceived and aided infounding this endowed chair. To emphasize its nationalcharacter, the late Glenn L. Martin contributed a special gift inApril 1954 providing for presentation of this lecture, named afterhis mother, Minta Martin, who inspired him to his aeronauticalachievements. The Minta Martin Lecture is given by theHunsaker Professor in several Aeronautical centers throughoutthe nation each year.

Former Lecturers

1956 Sir William Hawthorne1957 I.E. Garrick1958 Prof. Howard W. Emmons1959 Mr. George P. Sutton1960 Gen. Benjamin Kelsey1961 Prof. W. P. Jones1962 Samuel Herrick1964 Hans Ziegler1965 Dr. Abraham Hyatt1966 Prof. Arthur E. Bryson, Jr.1968 Dr. John Evvard1969 Dr. Robert W. Seamans, Jr.1970 Dr. Alfred J. Eggers1977 Dr. Gerard K. O’Neill1979 Dr. Dean Chapman1980 Dr. Guiseppe Colombo1981 Prof. Frank Marble1989 Dr. Joseph F. Shea1990 Dr. Jason Speyer1991 Dr. Nicholas A. Cumpsty1992 Mr. Duane McRuer1992 Dr. Stanley Weiss1994 Dr. John Deyst1995 Dr. Robert Lovell1996 Dr. Terrence Weisshaar1998 Dr. Nancy Leveson1998 Dr. Thomas J. Allen1999 Prof. Ann P. Dowling2001 Dr. Steven D. Dorfman2002 Mr. Allen C. Haggerty2003 Prof. Kim J. Vicente

The Lecture HallGreen Building 54 - 100http://whereis.mit.edu/map-jpg?selection=54&Buildings=go