Professor of Geodesy and Navigation in the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering

Chris Rizos is an Emeritus Professor in the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering and a co-director of the Satellite Navigation and Positioning (SNAP) Lab at UNSW.

My early fascination with old maps and Australia’s exploring pioneers sparked my own exploration of what we know today as the global navigation satellite technologies. The bulk of my research has been in Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS), such as GPS, and their applications, which extend across the whole spectrum of uses from Navigation to Geodesy. With over 20 years of service international geodetic and geoscientific organisations, and with my focus on high accuracy Positioning, Navigation and Timing (PNT), I have had the opportunity to be part of the evolution of a field that has had considerable global impact.

I have watched Geodesy rapidly evolve with its tools and datasets helping geoscientists monitor global change (including natural and climate change), changes in the environment (to ice sheets and atmosphere) and geohazards (volcanos and earthquakes), and surveyors and engineers applying these technologies from small-scale building works to international mapping projects. Through my research, my aim has been to “spatially enable” society, through the further development of technologies and systems that provide continuous, seamless, high accuracy positioning of objects, people, and every feature on the surface of the Earth.

Research Interests

Professor Rizos’s expertise and research interests include:

• Geospatial technology, modern geodesy technologies and applications, digital mapping
• GNSS and geospatial information management policy
• Technology and application of satellite-, wireless- and inertia-based sensors for high accuracy positioning
• GNSS for all classes of uses from navigation to geodesy
• GNSS positioning infrastructure, geodetic and height datums
• Professor Rizos has supervised to completion over 35 PhD and 8 Masters in Engineering students

Professor Rizos has been researching the technology and high precision applications of GPS since the mid-1980s, and has authored or co-authored over 650 journal and conference papers across the technological and scientific fields of geodesy, satellite oceanography, GPS and precise navigation (view list at http://research.unsw.edu.au/people/professor-chris-rizos/publications).

Professor Rizos retired in 2018, and is now an Emeritus Professor. He maintains a close interest in PNT technology and applications, as well as in the advances in geodetic science.

Outreach & Science Service

Professional Affiliations/Organisations

• International Association of Geodesy, Fellow
• Australian Institute of Navigation, Fellow
• US Institute of Navigation, Fellow

Editorial Boards

• Sensors, 2019 - present
• Journal of Applied Geodesy, Editor-in-chief, 2008 - present

Current Service Roles

• International Union of Geodesy & Geophysics (IUGG), President, 2023-2027
• National Committee for Earth Sciences of the Australian Academy of Science, Member, 2015 - present
• National Committee for Space Sciences of the Australian Academy of Science, Member, 2016 - present
• International Centre for Research & Development of Satellite Navigation in S.E. Asia (NAVIS), Hanoi, Vietnam, Member, Executive Committee, 2012 - present
• National Satellite Navigation Technology Symposia, Co-organiser and member of Organising Committee in 1993, 1995, 1997, 1999, 2001, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2013, 2015, 2016, 2018, 2020, 2022, 2024