To commemorate the centennial of her father's birth, Gioia Marconi Braga founded the Guglielmo Marconi International Fellowship Foundation (now the Marconi Society) in 1974, and served as its first chairman until her death in 1996. In creating the foundation that bore her 1909 Nobel Laureate father's name, Mrs. Braga characterized the Fellowship as "unique...in that it does not reward a person for intellectual achievements alone, but seeks to recognize and sustain those spiritual aspirations that a creative thinker may wish to apply to the establishment of a better world in which to live."

Originally headquartered at the Aspen Institute, then at the invitation of its chancellor and president George Bugliarello at New York's Polytechnic University, the Society relocated in 1997 to Columbia University's Fu School of Engineering and Applied Science where it is currently hosted by Dean Zvi Galil.

The Marconi Society supports ongoing public education programs that examine the societal implications of telecommunications technology. In 2004, to commemorate its 30th anniversary year, the Society launched its first Forum on a Civil Society, where a distinguished roster of guests considered the topic Information Abundance: Promise and Peril? Succeeding forums have explored such timely subjects as The Changing World of Technological Innovation and Hollywood Caught in the Web.

In collaboration with the university's Columbia Institute for Tele-Information and Fu School of Engineering and Science, the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Southern California, and the European Institute on the Media, the Marconi Society sponsors conferences and symposia on a broad range of telecommunications topics.

The Marconi Society welcomes nominations for its annual prize from learned societies and academies worldwide, and from individuals in universities, corporate and public life. Nomination requirements can be found on our website at http://www.marconifoundation.org/prize_criteria.html

The Guglielmo Marconi International Fellowship Foundation, Inc. is a public not-for-profit 501(c) (3) corporation.