Marconi Society names first Institute Award winners

The Marconi Society announced its inaugural Institute Award recipients on July 23, 2026, recognizing leaders in artificial intelligence, internet resilience and wireless communications. The honorees will be celebrated at the 2026 Marconi Awards Gala & Institute Forums in San Francisco this November.

Why it matters: - The inaugural Institute Awards spotlight work with direct real-world impact in AI governance, broadband access and wireless connectivity. - The honors signal where the Marconi Society sees the most urgent technology challenges: responsible AI deployment, resilient internet infrastructure and the standards behind modern wireless devices. - The recognition also elevates research and engineering that already underpins public systems and consumer networks used at scale.

What happened: - The Marconi Society announced three inaugural Institute Award recipients on July 23, 2026. - Dr. David Bray received the Marconi Award for Excellence in Artificial Intelligence. - Dr. Pierrette Renée Dagg received the Marconi Award for Leadership in Internet Resilience. - Dr. Hamid Jafarkhani received the Marconi Award for Innovation in Wireless Communications. - The three honorees will be recognized at the 2026 Marconi Institute Forums on Thursday, Nov. 5, 2026, at the Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco. - The broader 2026 Marconi Awards Gala & Institute Forums will run Nov. 4-6, 2026, at the same venue.

The details: - The Institute Awards are judged against criteria tied to each Institute's mission, including technical innovation, real-world impact and leadership. - The inaugural class reflects work in responsible AI deployment, community broadband research and wireless standards used in billions of devices. - John Janowiak, president and CEO of the Marconi Society, said the recipients turned technical depth into benefits that reach people in public health systems, unconnected communities and global device networks. - Dr. Bray has spent more than two decades applying advanced technology at national scale. - His work includes building the CDC's bioterrorism-response information systems and modernizing 207 legacy FCC IT systems onto cloud infrastructure. - Dr. Bray leads the People-Centered Internet coalition as executive director and co-chairs IEEE committees on AI standards. - Vint Cerf said Dr. Bray bridged AI advances with community-centered, non-partisan action across multiple organizations and public-sector settings. - Dr. Dagg is director of research at Merit Network and a research associate at Michigan State University's Quello Center. - Dr. Dagg has helped build the evidence base for broadband investment and community resilience. - Her work includes co-authoring frameworks used to monitor and evaluate policy. - Her research also documents community broadband champions closing connectivity gaps in underserved regions. - Roger Blake, CEO of Merit Network, said the recognition highlights Merit’s work at the intersection of advanced networking, research, education and 60 years of service. - Dr. Jafarkhani co-invented space-time block coding, a framework that enabled reliable wireless communication over multiple antennas. - That work underlies mobile cellular networks and Wi-Fi standards used by billions of devices. - Dr. Jafarkhani’s later work includes limited-feedback MIMO and reconfigurable-antenna systems. - His record includes 52 patents and more than 150 journal articles. - Lee A. Swindlehurst said few researchers have contributed as broadly to the birth of mobile wireless connectivity. - Event participation and sponsorship inquiries go to Flora Tromelin at ftromelin@marconisociety.org or +1-480-828-6064. - The Marconi Society says its Institutes in AI, Internet Resilience and Advanced Wireless convene global experts to advance technologies that benefit society. - More information is available at the Marconi Society website. - The Marconi Society also shared a LinkedIn page at its social media profile.

Between the lines: - The awards frame technical achievement as a public-interest story, not just an engineering one. - The Marconi Society is drawing a line from foundational research to systems people already depend on every day. - The inaugural class also gives the new Institute Awards immediate credibility by tying them to established names in policy, networking and wireless research.

What's next: - The Marconi Society will honor the three recipients at its November forums in San Francisco. - The 2026 gala and institute events are positioned to showcase additional work across AI, internet resilience and advanced wireless. - Sponsorship and attendance inquiries are now open.