Myron Kayton ME’55 was an internationally-known authority on guidance, control, navigation and avionics. Myron grew up in New York City where he attended the Bronx High School of Science. He received is B.E. degree in mechanical engineering from The Cooper Union in 1955. He received a M.S. from Harvard University with a concentration in electrical engineering and he received a Ph.D. in Instrumentation from M.I.T. in 1960.
He co-authored the definitive text Avionics Navigation Systems and several other books. He served as Deputy Manager for Lunar Module Guidance and Control at NASA’s Johnson Space Center where his office directed the contractors designing two inertial navigation systems, an alignment telescope, and the flight controls. The computer and algorithms that he developed were cutting-edge at the time. He also worked on a variety of other projects including the Space Shuttle Orbiter.
After working at NASA, he worked at TRW, where he served as Chief Engineer for Spacelab Avionics, headed the system engineering team for Space Shuttle Avionics, and Project Engineer for a nuclear power plant,
Dr. Myron Katon was a Life Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE), was an elected member of the corporate Board of Directors, and served two terms as President of its Aerospace and
Electronic Systems Society. He taught simulation methods, multi-sensor navigation systems, and land navigation at UCLA, and published
more than 80 papers and articles
In 1981, he formed Kayton Engineering Company, Inc. in Santa Monica, California. He also taught at the University of California in Los Angeles.
He received the IEEE’s Millennium Medal. He received the 2006 Kershner Award for his work on avionic, navigation, communication, and computer-automation systems. His name is included on the Wall of Honor at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. He is a Fellow in The National Science Foundation. He received a Cooper Union Presidential Citation in 1980 and the CUAA Gano Dunn Award in 1975. He was inducted into The Cooper Union Hall of Fame in 2009. He passed away in 2020.