Biography

Bill Bamford arrived at UT in 1997, and worked originally under Dr. R.S. Nerem.  His master’s thesis focused on precise orbit determination of the GLONASS satellites using radiometric data.  He also used satellite laser ranging data as a benchmark with which to evaluate the precision of the orbits generated at CSR and other research centers around the world

In 2000, Bill joined Dr. Lightsey and the Lightsey Research Group and began working in the GPS lab at CSR.  His dissertation focused on autonomous navigation of large formations of satellites.  He constructed a constellation of satellites using simulators in the CSR lab and at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center.  Using the internet, the simulated satellites could exchange their GPS measurements, and computed and executed maneuvers to match a desired control law.  The culmination of this work resulted in his dissertation in 2004.

Upon graduating in 2004, Bill was hired by Emergent Space Technology, located in Greenbelt, Maryland.  Initially, Bill worked in NASA’s Formation Flying Testbed, continuing his interest into formation navigation.  As a natural tangent, Bill was tasked to help develop and verify the navigation algorithms for NASA’s next generation GPS receiver, the Navigator.  The high-altitude experience Bill acquired through Navigator helped Emergent secure a spot on the Lockheed-Martin GOES-R proposal, where he has assisted in developing a GPS based Kalman filter for use in GEO orbits.  In other work, Bill has looked at optical and GPS based navigation for the NASA’s Orion spacecraft in cis-lunar orbits.

Bill currently lives in Severna Park, Maryland with his wife, Katie, and their children Ashley, Tyler, Zack and Annabelle.