A Tribute to George T. Schmidt

We lost a great Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) leader earlier this year upon the death of Dr. George T. Schmidt, former Aerospace and Electronic Systems Society (AESS) Board of Governors, VP for Member Services, VP Technical Operations, Distinguished Lecturer, Conference Committee, Early Career Award Committee, Fellow Search Committee, and many other IEEE leadership roles. George passed away on 22 February 2024. He was an IEEE Life Fellow serving in key IEEE roles for 20 years. He was widely recognized for his guidance, navigation, and control (GNC) expertise throughout his entire career. He was awarded his doctorate from MIT and joined MIT's Instrumentation Laboratory run by Doc Draper. The Instrumentation Lab became The Charles Stark Draper Laboratory in 1973, where he worked for over 45 years. He held a series of significant positions throughout his lengthy career, including Division Leader, Director of the Guidance Technology Center, and Education Director. He has over 100 technical papers, reports, encyclopedia articles, and books, and was a plenary speaker at multiple international conferences.