Alfred Leick
Alfred Leick received a PhD from Ohio State University, Department of Geodetic Science, in 1977. His teaching career at the University of Maine in GPS (Global Positioning System), geodesy, and estimation spanned 34 years. Prior to retirement, teaching assignments included photogrammetry and remote sensing, digital image processing, linear algebra, and differential equations. He created the online GPS-GAP (GPS, Geodesy and Application Program) program at the University of Maine, which continued in modified form after his retirement under the name Alpha GPS & Geodesy. He also provided online courses for Michigan Technology University until 2020.
The first edition of his book GPS Satellite Surveying was published in 1990. The most recent edition, which includes two Russian co-authors Lev Rapoport and Dmitry Tatarnikov, became available in 2015. He had been Editor-In-Chief of the journal GPS Solutions (Springer Verlag) for 28 years when he stepped down in December 2023.
Dr. Leick launched his GPS research in 1982 when testing the prototype Macrometer satellite receiver at M.I.T. He continued GPS research throughout the years, including while on sabbatical leave at the Air Force Geophysics Laboratory (Cambridge, MA) in 1984, 3S-Navigation (Irvine, CA) in 1996, Jet Propulsion Laboratory (Pasadena, CA) in 2002, an Alexander von Humboldt Research Associate at the University of Stuttgart in 1985, a Fulbright Scholar at the University of Sao Paulo during the Summers of 1991, 1992, a GPS Project Specialist on behalf of World Band and NRC (National Research Council) at Wuhan Technical University of Surveying and Mapping (P.R. China) in the Spring of 1990.
Dr. Leick has been a consultant on numerous GPS applications, e.g. early projects such as the Montgomery County geodetic network densification (1984), the millimeter engineering alignment survey at the Stanford accelerator (1984), and the Orange County 3000 station densification network in California (1993). He is a Fellow of ACSM (American Congress on Surveying and Mapping). Alfred retired from the University of Maine in June 2012.
He currently resides in Glenburn, Maine, on the shore of Pushaw Lake.