Gary Johnston
Principal Consultant – Geodesy
Gary Johnston is an experienced geodesist and former Co-chair of the United Nations (UN) Global Geospatial Information Management (UN-GGIM) Sub Committee on Geodesy until his retirement from the Australian Government Public Service in 2019.
He held this position since the creation of the Sub-Committee, and he led the complex international effort to develop a United Nations General Assembly Resolution – “A Global Geodetic Reference Frame for Sustainable Development”, which was the first UN resolution recognising the importance of a globally-coordinated approach to geodesy. Gary’s considerable technical and diplomatic leadership and advocacy was instrumental in the development of this resolution. He also led the development of the GGRF Roadmap and subsequent Implementation Plan.
Gary also chaired the International GNSS Service (IGS) Governing Board for 6 years before his retirement. In this role he oversaw the transformation of the IGS into a truly Multi GNSS service, embracing the emerging positioning constellations owned and operated by China and the European Union. He also actively encouraged the participation of new groups into the IGS in order to achieve greater diversity of participation and the improved sustainability this enables. Of particular emphasis was the increased participation by Chinese researchers. Another key achievement of his time on the IGS Board was to refocus the service’s efforts onto societal applications of precise observations of the Earth using its technologies.
In Australia, Gary was responsible for the National Positioning Infrastructure Branch at Geoscience Australia. In this role he actively managed the Australian National Geodetic Reference Frame and the associated geodetic infrastructure. He chaired a variety of governmental coordination committees tasked with managing geodesy and positioning in Australia. He also participated as a member of the Intergovernmental Committee on Surveying and Mapping (ICSM) for almost 20 Years.
In 2006 Gary was the national lead for a collaborative funding bid to the Australian government that resulted in the AuScope Geospatial Infrastructure project – the single largest investment in Australian Geodesy ever. The project involved funding for 3 radio telescopes for geodetic Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI), Satellite Laser Ranging (SLR) upgrades, a continent-wide network of 100 Continuously Operating Reference Stations (CORS) along with gravity and GNSS instrumentation. He led a collaborative team which implemented this distributed infrastructure across all Australian States and Territories. He also led a significant stakeholder engagement process to ensure the data from the infrastructure was used by the research community in Australia and abroad. This infrastructure was successfully constructed over 8 years and formed the basis of Australia’s new geodetic datum.
In 2018, Gary was recognised with one of Australia’s highest honours when he won a Queens Birthday award for outstanding public service in national and international satellite positioning and geodesy. The Award citation – “Mr Johnston has substantially contributed to the international science community, and to Australia’s international scientific reputation, through the International Association of Geodesy” embodies Gary’s dedication, commitment and tenacity in driving a paradigm shift in national and global geodesy.
Gary is most passionate about communicating the value of positioning capabilities to countries that are less well placed than Australia, so that they can enjoy the economic, safety and environmental benefits that can come from geodesy.
