Marconi Society names first Institute Award winners

The Marconi Society announced its inaugural Institute Award recipients on July 23, 2026, honoring three researchers for work in artificial intelligence, internet resilience and wireless communications. The awards will be presented at the Marconi Institute Forums and 2026 Marconi Awards Gala in San Francisco in November.

Why it matters: - The inaugural awards spotlight research that has moved into real-world use in AI governance, broadband access and wireless connectivity. - The honorees’ work affects public systems, underserved communities and the standards behind billions of devices.

What happened: - The Marconi Society announced its first 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 run Nov. 4-6, 2026, in San Francisco.

The details: - Institute Award nominations are judged on technical innovation, real-world impact and leadership in shaping each field’s future. - The inaugural class is meant to reflect the Marconi Society’s focus on responsible AI deployment, community broadband research and wireless standards. - David Bray’s background includes work on the CDC’s bioterrorism-response information systems and the modernization of 207 legacy FCC IT systems onto cloud infrastructure. - Bray leads the People-Centered Internet coalition and co-chairs IEEE committees on AI standards. - Vint Cerf said Bray has bridged AI advances with community-centered actions across multiple sectors. - Pierrette Renée Dagg serves as director of research at Merit Network and as a research associate at Michigan State University’s Quello Center. - Dagg has co-authored frameworks used to monitor and evaluate broadband policy and documented community broadband champions in underserved regions. - Merit Network CEO Roger Blake said Dagg’s recognition highlights work at the intersection of advanced networking, research, education and 60 years of service. - Hamid Jafarkhani co-invented space-time block coding, a method that helped enable reliable wireless communication over multiple antennas. - Jafarkhani’s work underlies mobile cellular networks and Wi-Fi standards used by billions of devices. - His later work includes limited-feedback MIMO and reconfigurable-antenna systems. - Jafarkhani has 52 patents and more than 150 journal articles. - Lee A. Swindlehurst said Jafarkhani made wide-ranging contributions to the rise of mobile wireless connectivity. - For event participation and sponsorship opportunities, contact Flora Tromelin at ftromelin@marconisociety.org or +1-480-828-6064. - More information is available at Marconi Society. - The Marconi Society’s LinkedIn page is here.

Between the lines: - The awards expand the Marconi Society’s institute structure beyond recognition into a signal of where the organization sees the most consequential technology work. - The selections favor researchers whose work connects technical depth to public outcomes rather than narrow academic achievement. - The breadth of the honorees suggests the Society is framing AI, internet access and wireless infrastructure as linked parts of the same societal challenge.

What's next: - The Marconi Society will present the awards in San Francisco in November. - The Institute Forums and gala are expected to bring together experts, supporters and sponsors around the Society’s AI, Internet Resilience and Advanced Wireless institutes. - Additional event participation details will come through the Marconi Society contact listed in the announcement.