The Marconi Society

ON THE EVE OF ITS NAMESAKE'S NOBEL CENTENNIAL,
THE MARCONI SOCIETY CELEBATES 35 YEARS OF SUCCESS
Honoring advances in communications technology and
promoting better understanding of how they affect society

BOLOGNA, ITALY, October 9, 2009 - As the world celebrates the 100th anniversary of Guglielmo Marconi’s Nobel Prize, the Marconi Society is successfully completing its 35th year. The organization has conferred its coveted prize—the equivalent of a Nobel in the field of information technology - upon a total of 40 Internet pioneers, telecommunications giants and visionaries whose theoretical work laid the foundation for breakthrough research that has advanced the social, economic and cultural improvement of all humanity.

This year's prize goes to Andrew Chraplyvy and Robert Tkach, a pair of Bell Labs scientists whose work on fiber optic nonlinearities led to vastly increased broadband capacity in the world’s communications networks. But the annual gala awards ceremony October 9th at the Palazzo Re Enzo in Bologna, Italy also recognizes Marconi himself just as his daughter Gioia, would have wished.

"Gioia Marconi Braga well understood the profound impact that the wave of innovation unleashed by her father would continue to have upon society,"said Robert W. Lucky, president of the Marconi Society." The foundation she established in her father’s name took on the challenge not only of honoring and promoting scientific achievements, but helping people better comprehend and prepare for the challenges inherent in those changes."

Although it always has sponsored symposia, forums and publications to promote awareness of major innovations and explore their implications, the Marconi Society has been especially active in 2009. In March, the society hosted a panel in the heart of Silicon Valley. "Fostering basic research in a quarter-by-quarter world," sponsored by Sun Microsystems, featured venture capitalists, leading technology experts and Marconi Fellows Vint Cerf and Whitfield Diffie leading a discussion on the problem of dwindling funding for the kind of long-term fundamental research that is critical to achieving breakthrough advances. In April, the society hosted a symposium at Columbia University, "The Dark and the Light of the Internet." to explore the intricate and often conflicting impacts of global connectivity.

Following the symposium at Columbia, the Marconi Society took the opportunity to confer a Lifetime Achievement Award—only the fourth in its history--on Amos Joel, Jr., whose work in switching technology helped enable modern mobile telephony. The society also recognized two early innovators, Professor George Bugliarello, President Emeritus of Polytechnic University (now part of NYU), and Jacob “Jack” Goldman, the driving force behind the development of Xerox PARC. Both also have been extraordinary leaders on the Marconi Society Board of Directors.

In September, the society took on its most ambitious project ever, sponsoring plenary and breakout sessions at the International Engineering Consortium (IEC) Broadband Europe World Forum in Paris. “Combating World Poverty While Creating New Opportunities for Profit in Emerging Markets” and “Combating World Poverty: Real Challenges and Real Successes” both featured top experts from the World Bank, leading universities, telecom companies and telecom entrepreneurs, as well as two Marconi Fellows. The sessions explored both the transformative social and economic effects of connectivity and the profit opportunities for those companies and entrepreneurs willing to invest in low income regions.

On another front, the Marconi Society continued and expanded its Young Scholar program, which was reinstituted last year after a gap of many years. A generous donation from Marconi Fellow Ron Rivest gave the program new impetus. The international selection committee chose five outstanding young researchers to receive awards in Bologna for 2009. The winners include Italian, German, Israeli, French and American scholars.

As Marconi Fellows and friends join the Fondazione Guglielmo Marconi in Bologna to celebrate, the events will cap a year of significant achievements for the Marconi Society. As it looks to 2010 the society plans to continue and expand its role of encouraging and advocating “creativity in service to humanity,” while also exploring and educating about the profound impact Marconi’s discovery and ensuing advances have had on our world.

Additional information about the Marconi Society and the Marconi Fellows can be found at www.marconisociety.org.

Contact:
Hatti Hamlin
Public Affairs Director
The Marconi Society
925.872.4328
hattihamlin@aol.com

MARCONI SOCIETY
Columbia University
500 West 120th Street, 500 Mudd Building

MARCONI SOCIETY SELECTS 2009 YOUNG SCHOLAR AWARD WINNERS
Five top researchers will be honored at annual award dinner in Bologna

BOLOGNA, ITALY, October 9, 2009--The Marconi Society, the leading organization devoted to recognizing and encouraging scientific contributions in the field of information technology, has selected five young scientists from top engineering schools to receive its 2009 Young Scholar Awards.

The five award winners are: Sébastien Soudan, École Normale Supérieure de Lyon; Marco Papaleo, University of Bologna; Eric Plum, Optoelectronics Research Centre (ORC), University of Southampton; Eitan Yaakobi, University of California at San Diego’s Jacobs School of Engineering; and Felix Gutierrez, Jr., University of Texas, Austin.

After a break of many years, the Marconi Society Young Scholars Awards were reinstituted with a generous grant from 2007 Marconi Fellow Ron Rivest, an MIT professor who co-founded RSA encryption, the major encryption system used throughout the world for secure transactions and communications over the Internet. The society is best known for its annual $100,000 Marconi Award and Fellowship given to living scientists whose scope of work and influence emulate the principle of “creativity in service to humanity."

“Marconi Society Young Scholars have demonstrated extraordinary early promise and already have made an impact in their fields of research,” said Robert Lucky, chairman of the Marconi Society. “The selection committee looks for candidates who show the potential to win the Marconi Prize—the equivalent of the Nobel Prize in communications science—at some point in the future. As a point of reference, Marconi Fellows have been at the forefront of every modern advance in telecommunications and the Internet.” (A full list of Marconi Prize Winners may be found at http://marconisociety.org/fellows.html.)

Soudan, a French researcher who received his Diplôme d’Ingénieur from the École Centrale de Lyon, France, in 2005 and a M.Sc. in Computer Science, with honors, from the École Normale Supérieure de Lyon, in 2006, was selected for his work in bandwidth sharing and control in high-speed networks. After completing his Ph.D. studies, 'he will help launch a start-up spin-off of INRIA, the French National Institute for Computer Research and Control, to develop innovative software for network operators and service providers.

Italian-born Papaleo was selected for his outstanding work on LDPC code applications for broadcasting. LDPC codes are a type of error-correcting code now poised to become the standard in error-correction for applications from cell-phones to communications in Space. He received both his B.S. (2003), and Ms.C. (2006, Summa Cum Laude), in Telecommunication Engineering from the University of Bologna. In 2006, he received the DEIS-FGM Award for best master’s thesis in the field of telecommunications. He has collaborated with cutting edge scientific research groups at University College London (UCL), the German Aerospace Center (DLR) and most recently, at the Center for Magnetic Recording Research at UCSD.

German-born Eric Plum, a third year PhD student in the nanophotonics and metamaterials research group at the Optoelectronics Research Centre (ORC), University of Southampton, was selected for his pioneering work on chiral metamaterials, in particular the discovery of a new type of chirality, the demonstration of a negative index of refraction and important advances in understanding asymmetric transmission, a new fundamental effect which resembles the Faraday effect. His research is especially relevant to optical telecommunications, data storage and imaging. He has worked on a variety of projects and published a number of papers including “Metamaterial with Negative Index due to Chirality” which was highlighted in the Editor’s suggestions of the journal Physical Review B. He studied Physics at RWTH Aachen, Germany and spent his third year as a visiting student at the University of Southampton in the School of Physics and Astronomy. His fourth year was spent as a Fulbright scholar at New Mexico Tech, USA, where he received highest honors for his B.Sc. in Physics with Astrophysics and was awarded the Albert Petscheck Award for excellence in theoretical physics. He joined the ORC in 2006.

Eitan Yaakobi, a graduate student at the University of California at San Diego’s Jacobs School of Engineering, was selected for his outstanding work in the fields of communications and information theory with a particular emphasis on error correcting coding in flash memories, contributing to a reduction in cost and an increase in capacity. Born in Israel, Yaakobi received two B.A. degrees in 2005, both Summa Cum Laude, in Computer Science and Mathematics, from the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel. He also completed his M.Sc., Summa Cum Laude in Computer Science at the Technion in 2007. While at UCSD, he received the UCSD Jacobs School Fellowship, awarded to a promising graduate student at the school.

Felix Gutierrez, Jr. of the University of Texas, Austin, was selected for his outstanding work in the field of wireless communications with an emphasis on antenna design and radio frequency circuit design. Born in San Antonio, Texas, Gutierrez received his B.S. in Electrical Engineering from UT-Austin in 2006. He earned his M.S in Electrical Engineering from Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas in 2008.
During his academic career, he has been the recipient of many scholarships and fellowships, including the Radio Club of America Scholarship, and the Innovative Signal Analysis (ISA) Fellowship.
"These are truly outstanding young engineers whose work will be undeniably important to the future of communications and the Internet,” said Professor Ted Rappaport, chairman of the Young Scholar selection committee and serves as the William and Bettye Nowlin Chair at The University of Texas at Austin. “I’m pleased to see them getting the recognition and encouragement from the distinguished Marconi Fellows at this early point in their careers.”
The Young Scholar Awards include a financial stipend and an invitation and travel funds to attend the annual Marconi Award Dinner in Bologna, where they will present some of their research findings, and have the opportunity to meet a number of Marconi Fellows including, among others, Leonard Kleinrock and Paul Baran, pioneers of packet-switching theory, John Cioffi, inventor of the DSL modem, and last year's Marconi Fellow, fiber optics-pioneer Professor David Payne of the University of Southampton in the U.K. Other winners have included Google Founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin.

The Marconi Society was established in 1974 through an endowment set up by Gioia Marconi Braga, daughter of Guglielmo Marconi, the Nobel laureate who invented radio (wireless telegraphy).

Through symposia, conferences, forums and publications, the Marconi Society promotes awareness of major innovations in information theory, technology and applications with particular attention to understanding how they change and benefit society.

Additional information about the Marconi Society and the Marconi Fellows can be found at www.marconisociety.org.

MARCONI SOCIETY SELECTS 2009 YOUNG SCHOLAR AWARD WINNERS
Five top researchers will be honored at annual award dinner in Bologna

NEW YORK, NEW YORK, September 21, 2009--The Marconi Society, the leading organization devoted to recognizing and encouraging scientific contributions in the field of communications science and the Internet, has selected five young scientists from top engineering schools to receive its 2009 Young Scholar Awards.

The five award winners are: Sebastien Soudan, Ecole Normale Superieure de Lyon; Marco Papaleo, University of Bologna; Eric Plum, Optoelectronics Research Centre (ORC), University of Southampton; Eitan Yaakobi, University of California at San Diego's Jacobs School of Engineering; and Felix Gutierrez, Jr., University of Texas, Austin.

This is the second year the Young Scholars Awards have been granted by the Marconi Society, which is best known for its annual $100,000 Marconi Award and Fellowship given to living scientists whose scope of work and influence emulate the principle of "creativity in service to humanity." The Young Scholars program was launched with a generous donation from 2007 Marconi Fellow Ronald L. Rivest, an MIT professor who was a co-founder of RSA encryption, the major encryption system used throughout the world for secure transactions on the Internet.

"Marconi Society Young Scholars have demonstrated extraordinary early promise and already have made an impact in their fields of research, " said Robert Lucky, chairman of the Marconi Society. " The selection committee looks for candidates who show the potential to win the Marconi Prize --the equivalent of the Nobel Prize in communications science -- at some point in the future. As a point of reference, Marconi Fellows have been at the forefront of every modern advance in telecommunications and the Internet." (A full list of Marconi Prize Winners may be found at http://marconisociety.org/fellows.html.)

Soudan, a French researcher who received his Diplome d'Ingenieur from the Ecole Centrale de Lyon, France, in 2005 and a M.Sc. in Computer Science, with honors, from the Ecole Normale Superieure de Lyon, in 2006, was selected for his work in bandwidth sharing and control in high-speed networks. After completing his Ph.D. studies, he will help launch LinKTiss, a start-up spin-off of INRIA, the French National Institute for Computer Research and Control, to develop innovative software for network operators and service providers.

Italian-born Papaleo was selected for his outstanding work on LDPC code applications for broadcasting. LDPC codes are a type of error-correcting code now poised to become the standard in error-correction for applications from cell-phones to communications in Space. He received both his B.S. (2003), and Ms.C. (2006, Summa Cum Laude), in Telecommunication Engineering from the University of Bologna. In 2006, he received the DEIS-FGM Award for best master's thesis in the field of telecommunications. He has collaborated with cutting edge scientific research groups at University College

TWO PIONEERS OF THE SCIENCE OF OPTICAL NONLINEARITIES IN FIBER OPTIC COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS WIN MARCONI PRIZE

Bell Labs scientists developed the concept of dispersion management and significantly advanced transmission technology

NEW YORK, NY. July 7, 2009-- Alcatel-Lucent (Euronext Paris and NYSE: ALU) Bell Labs scientists Andrew R. Chraplyvy and Robert W. Tkach, research partners for more than two decades, have been awarded the 2009 Marconi Fellowship and Prize for their research into optical fiber nonlinearities and their development of novel mitigation techniques that vastly increased the transmission speed and capacity of optical fiber communications systems.

The duo will receive the award October 9th at the annual Marconi Awards Dinner at the Palazzo Re Enzo in Bologna, Italy. The dinner and the preceding two-day Marconi Symposium are being hosted by the Bologna-based Fondazione Guglielmo Marconi.

The Marconi Society, established in 1975, annually recognizes a living scientist whose work in the field of communications and information technology advances the social, economic and cultural improvement of all humanity. Recent winners have included Professor David Payne of the University of Southampton in the UK, another optical fiber pioneer who led the development of the erbium-doped optical fiber amplifier; Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page; MIT Professor Ron Rivest, co-inventor of RSA encryption; Stanford Professor John Cioffi, the inventor of modern high speed modems that enabled DSL; and French Professor Claude Berrou, whose discovery of turbo codes led to important advances in mobile telephony, satellite and radio communications.

"By demonstrating the dramatic capacity limitations imposed by nonlinearities on long-distance transmission via fiber, Andy and Bob not only brought attention and resources to address the challenge but went on to find novel mitigation techniques," said Robert Lucky, chairman of the Marconi Society and a former Bell Labs colleague and manager of the two scientists. "They developed the concept of dispersion management--and also conceived a new optical fiber type. The effect of these innovations was to enable wavelength-division-multiplexed (WDM) fiber transmission systems with capacities beyond one Terabit/second per fiber--a 100-fold capacity increase in a mere ten years."

Optical fibers, used in communications systems to carry voice, data and images that have been translated into laser light pulses, are the backbone of the Internet and modern telecommunications systems. However, when optical fibers first were installed, few scientists anticipated how quickly capacity limitations would come into play. Volume has exploded over the past 20 years, and engineers have raced to stay ahead of the demand.

That helps explain the importance of the contributions of Chraplyvy and Tkach. Even before they invented the new optical fiber that has become an industry standard - and subsequently developed their innovative dispersion management techniques to mitigate fiber nonlinearities--they faced the uphill battle of convincing other scientists that this was a problem worthy of significant attention.

In what he described as an "idle calculation" while raking leaves in his backyard, Chraplyvy realized at what point optical nonlinearities in communication fibers would severely limit the fibers' ability to carry large amounts of information and that the world's communications networks could reach gridlock in a matter of years rather than the decades that had been assumed. The incremental approach to improving transmission efficiency that had sufficed until then was no longer an option.

As luck would have it, at about that same time, Tkach joined Bell Laboratories. He proved the ideal collaborator and the two became inseparable investigators of optical fiber nonlinearities and how to overcome their damaging effects.

A powerful technique called dense wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) had been under development at Bell Labs during the 1980s and 1990s to enhance fiber optic capacity. Encoding separate streams of information onto separate colors (wavelengths) of light made it is possible to send multiple streams of information down the same optical fiber. Unfortunately the two existing standard fiber types of the day were not able to support large numbers of wavelengths carrying very high-speed signals.

By careful investigations of the effects on optical nonlinearities of an inherent material property in optical fibers (called chromatic dispersion) Tkach and Chraplyvy realized that a new type of optical fiber with precisely controlled chromatic dispersion would be able to support large numbers of wavelengths carrying high-speed signals. Implementing these discoveries and working with a Bell Labs development team in Atlanta, they devised a new type of fiber, branded TrueWave® Fiber that optimizes transmission capacity of communications systems. The new fiber, now known generically as Non-Zero Dispersion Fiber (NZDF), has become an industry standard that has enabled the explosive growth in communications bandwidth. Roughly 50 million miles of NZDF have been installed worldwide.

Based on NZDF Chraplyvy and Tkach went on to invent the concept of dispersion management, which further increased fiber optic capacity and is now used in all high-speed, high-capacity fiber optic communications systems throughout the world. By 1996, their technological innovations had led to breaking the Terabit/second (one trillion bits per second on a single fiber) barrier.

Andy and Bob's groundbreaking research paved the way towards meeting society's growing need for high bandwidth applications such as telemedicine, enhanced conferencing and other emerging applications,” said Jeong Kim President of Bell Labs "Andy and Bob exemplify the caliber of people who work at Bell labs and the pre-eminent research they perform." he added.

Chraplyvy and Tkach work at the fabled Crawford Hill Laboratory of Bell Labs (now part of Alcatel-Lucent) where fiber optic research began in the 1960s and where so many communications breakthroughs have taken place.

Chraplyvy joined Bell Labs in 1980 after working three years in the Physics Department at General Motors Research Laboratories where he studied ultra-high resolution spectroscopy of gases and impurity modes in solids. Prior to joining GM he had received his undergraduate degree in physics from Washington University in St. Louis, and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from Cornell University.

He currently is Optical Transport Networks Research Vice President at Bell Labs. He holds over 30 patents in the areas of lightwave systems and fiber optics and is the recipient of many of the industry's highest honors, including the 2003 John Tyndall Award, the 1999 Thomas Alva Edison Patent Award, the 1999 New Jersey Inventor of the Year Award, and the 1998 Lucent Technologies Patent Award. He is a Bell Labs Fellow, a member of the National Academy of Engineering, Fellow of the Optical Society of America and Fellow of IEEE.

After receiving undergraduate degrees in Physics and Math from the University of Cincinnati and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from Cornell University, Tkach joined Bell Labs in 1984 where he quickly teamed up with Chraplyvy. They jointly addressed the challenges of optical nonlinearities and dispersion management. Tkach joined AT&T Labs in 1996 and Celion Networks in 2000. He rejoined Bell Labs in 2006 and happily returned to Crawford Hill where he is now Director of Transmission Systems and Networks Research.

Tkach is extraordinarily active in his industry, serving as Chair of the Optical Fiber Communications Conference (OFC) Steering Committee and on the Technical Advisory Board of the Optoelectronics Industry Data Association (OIDA). He has been General Co-Chair of OFC, Vice-President of the Optical Internetworking Forum, Associate Editor of the Journal of Lightwave Technology and a member of the IEEE LEOS Board of Governors. He has received the Thomas Alva Edison Patent Award from the Research and Development Council of New Jersey and is a Fellow of the Optical Society of America, the IEEE, and AT&T. Tkach received the 2008 John Tyndall Award jointly sponsored by the OSA and IEEE and in 2009 was elected to the National Academy of Engineering.

"What strikes me about Andy and Bob is how well they exemplify the great tradition of Bell Laboratories," said Lucky. "It is a tradition where leadership emanates from technical or scientific expertise. Although they were relatively junior at the time, when Andy or Bob spoke at a meeting, everyone listened respectfully. Of the research projects for which I had responsibility, the optical transmission project was steadily fruitful--and Bob and Andy deserve an enormous amount of credit for its ultimate success. Their foundational individual scientific contributions and subsequent R&D leadership were critical to advancing transmission technology and essential to unleashing the large scale deployment of WDM systems that have revolutionized the Internet and the telecommunications industry."

Very few scientists have accomplished what Andy Chraplyvy and Bob Tkach have." said Rod Alferness, Bell Labs Chief Scientist. "Over the course of their careers they have not only made numerous breakthroughs that have revolutionized optical technology, but in the process have improved the research of others and made the organization successful through unfailing collaboration, passion, and inventiveness."

The Marconi Society at Columbia University was established in 1974 through an endowment set up by Gioia Marconi Braga, daughter of Guglielmo Marconi, the Nobel laureate who invented radio (wireless telegraphy). It is best known for the Marconi Prize, awarded annually to an outstanding individual whose scope of work and influence emulate the principle of "creativity in service to humanity" that inspired Marconi. Through symposia, conferences, forums and publications, the Marconi Society promotes awareness of major innovations in communication theory, technology and applications with particular attention to understanding how they change and benefit society.

Additional information about the Marconi Society and the Marconi Fellows can be found at www.marconisociety.org

Contact:
Hatti Hamlin
Public Affairs Director
The Marconi Society
925.872.4328
hattihamlin@aol.com

June 15,, 2009
Marconi Society signs on to sponsor IEC Broadband World Forum
Paris conference promises to be outstanding:
Special discounts available for Marconi attendees

The Marconi Society has become a first-time sponsor of the annual IEC Broadband World Forum Europe event in Paris--and you're entitled to a discount!

In conjunction with its afternoon Plenary Session on Wednesday, September 9th, the Marconi Society is receiving a 30% registration discount applicable for the entire event or single sessions and day passes throughout the entire Sept. 7-9 conference. To take advantage of this offer, Marconi Society Fellows, board members and "friends" can access the private registration page offering a 30% savings on all conference packages by entering promotion code EXHMAR at the following URL: http://www.iec.org/events/2009/bbwf/register/.
This year's must-attend event, host-sponsored by Orange includes the following exciting highlights:

More than 45 workshops, panel discussions, keynote addresses, and plenary panels
Exclusive programming presented by the Marconi Society focused on combating world poverty while creating new business opportunities in telecommunications
Cutting-edge technology exhibition spanning all three days showcases leading technology vendors from around the world with their progressive products, solutions, and services on display
Co-located IEC European Executive Institute bringing together the continent's most influential senior executives to discuss the convergence of networks, devices, and content

The IEC Broadband World Forum Europe event will be one of the best places on the planet to see the latest innovations in ICT technology, network with more than 5000 fellow ICT professionals, and talk to more than 200 of the world's leading telecommunications companies.

Come hear firsthand the Marconi Society's thought-provoking sessions on using telecommunications technology to combat world poverty. And, register today for the rest of the event by entering promotion code EXHMAR at the following URL: http://www.iec.org/events/2009/bbwf/register/.

"Oh, What a Tangled Web," in Columbia University's The Record recaps "The Dark and the Light of the Internet," the Marconi Society's recent symposium at Columbia, which provided an indepth discussion of the Web's untapped potential for good. . .and bad.

WASHINGTON, D.C. --Paul Baran, Leonard Kleinrock and Andrew Viterbi received the Nation's highest honors for science and technology as recipients of the 2007 National Medal of Science or the 2007 National Medal of Technology and Innovation. The medals were awarded by President Bush at a White House ceremony on Monday, September 29th.

The National Medal of Science, which Kleinrock and Viterbi received, honors individuals for pioneering scientific research in a range of fields, including physical, biological, mathematical, social, behavioral, and engineering sciences, that enhances our understanding of the world and leads to innovations and technologies that give the United States its global economic edge. The National Science Foundation administers the award, which was established by Congress in 1959. (For more information about the National Medal of Science visit www.nsf.gov/nsb/awards/nms/medal.htm.)

Kleinrock, a professor at UCLA and the 1986 recipient of the Marconi Prize and Fellowship, contributed to the basic principles of packet switching, the technology underpinning the Internet, and directed the transmission of the first message ever to pass over the Internet. Viterbi, the 1990 Marconi Prize winner and founder of QualComm, Inc., developed the Viterbi Algorithm, used by all four international standards for digital cellular telephony, which allows many users to share the same radio frequencies, exponentially increasing system capacity.

The National Medal of Technology and Innovation, given to Baran, honors America’s leading innovators. The award is given to individuals, teams, and/or companies/divisions for their outstanding contributions to the nation’s economic, environmental and social well-being through the development and commercialization of technology products, processes and concepts; technological innovation; and development of the Nation’s technological manpower. The Department of Commerce administers the award, which was established by an act of Congress in 1980. For more information about the National Medal of Technology and Innovation visit: http://www.uspto.gov/nmti.

Baran, the 1991 Marconi Prize winner for his contributions to packet-switched networks, was instrumental in the development of four other important networking technologies, including packet voice technology which led to the first commercial pre-standard ATM product and discrete multitone modem technology that is at the root of technology used in DSL modems. He founded Metricom, the first wireless Internet company and Com21, an early cable modem company. He is also credited with inventing the metal detector used in airports.

The Academie des sciences, the premier scientific institute of France, has elected Marconi Fellow Claude Berrou to its elite ranks. The traditional presentation of the ceremonial sword each member receives was made at TELECOM Bretagne by Academy Member and 1994 Fields Medal winner Jean-Christophe Yoccoz.

Professor Berrou is best known for his invention of the turbo principle in telecommunication receivers, especially for error correction.

Academie des sciences is an institution dating from 17th century and King Louis XIV, established for the purpose of promoting science, delivering prizes and awards, advising the French government about different topics and working with foreign academies. It has just 237 members and 135 foreign associates divided in nine sections. Professor Berrou was elected to the "applications of science" section.

Such famous French scholars as Laplace, Carnot, Fourier, Fresnel, Coulomb and Pasteur have all been members of the Académie.

SCHOLARS AWARD PROGRAM LAUNCHED

New York, August 29, 2008--The Marconi Society, the leading organization devoted to recognizing and encouraging scientific contributions in the field of communications science and the Internet, has selected four young scientists from top engineering schools to be the first recipients of its Young Scholar Awards. Rafael Pinaud Laufer of the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA), Jay Kumar Sundararajan of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Hao Zou of Stanford University and Salman Abdul Baset of Columbia University will be presented with the awards at the Society's annual Awards Dinner, which this year will be held at the Royal Society in London on September 26.

This is the first year the Young Scholars Awards have been granted by the organization, which is best known for its annual $100,000 Marconi Award and Fellowship given to living scientists whose scope of work and influence emulate the principle of “creativity in service to humanity." The Young Scholars program was launched with a generous donation from 2007 Marconi Fellow Ronald L. Rivest, an MIT professor who was a co-founder of RSA encryption, the major encryption system used throughout the world for secure transactions on the Internet.

Brazilian-born Laufer was honored for his outstanding research in network and Internet security. Laufer earned his BS "cum laude" in electrical engineering from Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ) in 2003 and his MS there in 2005. Since then he has been pursuing a PhD at UCLA, which he received this year. There he developed a new IP trace-back system against anonymous denial-of-service (DoS) attacks on the Internet. The research led to a generalization of the Bloom filter theory, which was used for a secure and efficient network path coding in forwarded packets.

Zou was honored for his outstanding research in data transmission and storage. Born in Sichuan , China , he is a 2008 Recipient of the Stanford Deans' Award for Academic Accomplishment. He joined Electrical Engineering Professor John Cioffi’s research group in 2007, a rare accomplishment for an undergraduate. He became involved in the investigation of re-use of home power lines to transmit data signals at very high speeds throughout a home and his work already has had an impact on 10 million DSL customers.

Baset, born in Pakistan , was selected for his outstanding work in designing algorithms and protocols for peer-to-peer systems to solve connectivity issues that make routing and remote access service difficult. A fourth year Ph.D. student in the Computer Science Department at Columbia University, he received his BS in Computer system engineering from GIK Institute of Engineering Sciences and Technology, Swabi , Pakistan , in 2001. While working on his MS degree at Columbia , he developed techniques to analyze the network architecture and protocol of Skype--a popular peer-to-peer VoIP application with a proprietary protocol. Together with his colleagues he performed a delay analysis of transmission control protocol (TCP) for voice calls and video streaming.

Sundararajan, a graduate student at the Laboratory for Information and Decision Systems at MIT, was selected for his outstanding work in the field of network coding and its applications. He is currently pursuing a PhD in electrical engineering and computer science, working on switching theory, network coding, information theory, scheduling and wireless networks. Sundararajan earlier received his master’s degree in electrical engineering and computer science from MIT, where he was given the Morris Joseph Levin Award for the best oral presentation of a master’s thesis from the Department of EECS. He received his bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering in 2003 from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) in Madras , where he was awarded the Siemens Prize for the best academic record in the class.

"The outstanding quality of all four students makes me proud to have been able to jumpstart this new program for the Marconi Society," said Rivest. "The work they are doing promises great things for the future."

The Young Scholar Awards include a financial stipend and an invitation and travel funds for winners to attend the annual Marconi Award Dinner, where they will have the opportunity to meet a number of Marconi Fellows at the event, including, among others, Leonard Kleinrock and Paul Baran, pioneers of packet-switching theory, Robert Metcalfe, inventor of the Ethernet, Whitfield Diffie, who together with Stanford Professor Emeritus Martin Hellman invented Public Key Encryption, and this year's Marconi Fellow, fiber optics-pioneer Professor David Payne of the University of Southampton in the U.K. Other winners have included Google Founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin.

About the Marconi Society

The Marconi Society was established in 1974 through an endowment set up by Gioia Marconi Braga, daughter of Guglielmo Marconi, the Nobel laureate who invented radio (wireless telegraphy).

Through symposia, conferences, forums and publications, the Marconi Society promotes awareness of major innovations in communication theory, technology and applications with particular attention to understanding how they change and benefit society.

Additional information about the Marconi Society and the Marconi Fellows can be found at www.marconisociety.org.

Featuring Marconi Fellows:
Paul Baran, Sergey Brin, Vinton Cerf, Bob Kahn, Leonard Kleinrock, Bob Metcalfe, and Larry Page.

Fifty years ago, in response to the surprise Soviet launch of Sputnik, the U.S. military set up the Advanced Research Projects Agency. It would become the cradle of connectivity, spawning the era of Google and YouTube, of Amazon and Facebook, of the Drudge Report and the Obama campaign. Each breakthrough--network protocols, hypertext, the World Wide Web, the browser--inspired another as narrow-tied engineers, long-haired hackers, and other visionaries built the foundations for a world-changing technology. Keenan Mayo and Peter Newcomb let the people who made it happen tell the story.

by Keenan Mayo and Peter Newcomb July 2008

FIBER OPTOELECTRONICS PIONEER WINS MARCONI PRIZE

Professor David N. Payne, an internationally distinguished research leader in photonics and Director of the Optoelectronics Research Centre (ORC) at the University of Southampton in the UK , has been named the 2008 Marconi Fellow and prize-winner for his pioneering work in the field of fiber optoelectronics and fiber telecommunications, the backbone of modern high speed data transmission.

The Marconi Society, established in 1975, annually recognizes a living scientist who, like Guglielmo Marconi, the inventor of radio, shares the determination that advances in communications and information technology be directed to the social, economic and cultural improvement of all humanity. Recent winners have included Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page; MIT Professor Ron Rivest, co-inventor of RSA encryption; Stanford Professor John Cioffi, the inventor of modern high speed modems that enabled DSL; and French Professor Claude Berrou, whose discovery of turbo codes led to important advances in mobile telephony, satellite and radio communications.

The award and accompanying $100,000 prize will be presented to Payne at the annual Marconi Society Award Dinner on September 26, 2008 at the Royal Society in London , UK .

"David Payne is a true pioneer," said Sir Eric Ash, a Marconi Fellow. "He has been at the forefront of this rapidly expanding branch of applied science and engineering since the early seventies. Of the many and major advances developed by his research group, the best known is the invention of the erbium-doped fiber amplifier (EDFA), a type of optical amplifier on which rests the whole basis of our fiber telecommunications systems. This unique invention overcame the problem of transmitting data over large distances, a process which even when using highly transparent fiber, requires some degree of amplification."

Payne, 63, was born in England , but brought up in Africa when his father, a Squadron Leader in the wartime Royal Air Force, immigrated to Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia ) to become a Headmaster in the local school. David completed his primary and secondary education in Zambia and travelled widely through Africa . He returned to England to attend a university because at that time there was no higher education available in Zambia . He worked for a year in steel mills and power stations as a commissioning engineer for English Electric, before earning a Bachelor of Science in electrical power engineering at the University of Southampton in 1967. Despite his love of heavy engineering (to the extent of working all his university vacations as an on-site engineer), in 1968 he ‘saw the light’ and pursued a Diploma in Quantum Electronics - and in 1976 a PhD in photonics. He believes however that his stint in heavy engineering helped to shape his pragmatic and application -focused approach to research, as well as his entrepreneurial activities.

A professor of photonics and member of the University of Southampton 's faculty for 40 years, Payne's contributions in the field have had a major impact on areas ranging from telecommunications and optical sensors to nanophotonics and optical materials. Many of the special fibers used today resulted from his work, for example, the fiber used in optical fiber gyroscopes. His invention of the erbium-doped fiber amplifier (EDFA) has been widely adopted by the telecommunications industry and has propelled remarkable Internet growth by enabling the transmission of vast amounts of data through the use of multiple optical wavelengths. Payne's group is also credited with the discovery of the diode-pumped silica fiber laser that is now seeing widespread adoption in manufacturing and defense.

Payne has been Director of the ORC, founded in 1989, since 1995, but his history with the group extends much further into the past. Southampton began working on the laser in 1961, shortly after its invention. In 1967, they were one of the first to take on development of silica optical fibers to advance the development of long-distance light communication, believing its high transparency and relatively low transmission losses could make the rapid transmission of large amounts of data practical. Payne, as one of the first PhD students in the field now known as photonics, was given the seemingly impossible task of reducing the losses in optical fibers to an acceptable level for long distance telecommunications.

Says Payne, “I was incredibly fortunate to be offered the opportunity to work as one of the first in optical telecommunications. It created the high speed connected world and its outstanding success has been one of man’s greatest achievements. Without optical fibers and amplifiers it is hard to imagine the internet we know today.”

Payne made many contributions to the fabrication of ultra low-loss optical fibers, most notably the phosphorus-doped fiber which today forms the basis of many fiber lasers. As well as detailing many new fiber fabrication techniques and new ways to characterize the resulting fibers, he is credited with pointing out the advantages to optical telecommunications of operating at the wavelength of minimum chromatic dispersion. Together with his work on optical amplifiers, he has contributed in a major way to the explosive growth of optical communications, now recognized as a monumental breakthrough.

Payne and his colleagues invented the first practical optical fiber amplifier, making long-distance optical communications cost effective since many signals could be easily sent hundreds of miles without requiring electronic conversion. By making large amounts of bandwidth available at low cost over very long distances they fulfilled a major pre-requisite for the formation of the Internet. Today a single EDFA can amplify up to ten terabits per second of digital information, enough for nearly a million high-definition television channels.

The early successes of the Optical Fibre Group at Southampton, due in no small part to the contributions of Professor Payne, led to the establishment of the interdisciplinary ORC, now one of the foremost research centers in optoelectronics and a key player in the communications revolution of the late 20th century.

But Payne has never been one to rest on his laurels. In 2004, he gained international acclaim by leading the team that broke the kilowatt barrier for output of a fiber laser, and subsequently achieved many other fiber laser performance records.

Payne's recognition by the Marconi Society extends beyond academia to his achievements as an entrepreneur, which Marconi Society chairman Robert Lucky calls "an important component of the Marconi Prize-winner selection criteria. We look for scientists who, like Marconi himself, have had the vision not only to make breakthrough discoveries, but to apply these successfully for the benefit of mankind. David's activities have led to the development of numerous companies, creating jobs and wealth in the local community and facilitating worldwide commerce and knowledge sharing. He perfectly fits the profile of a Marconi Fellow." In all, there are ten photonics companies in the Southampton area who owe their existence to the ORC. Among the most notable companies Payne has jointly founded are York Technologies (now part of PK Technology Inc.) and SPI Lasers plc, a leading supplier of high power fiber lasers located at Hedge End, Southampton, which is currently listed on AIM at the London Stock Exchange. Payne also is inventor and co-inventor on over 20 patents and applications.

"Despite his many other achievements, David remains committed to making the Optoelectronics Research Centre of the University of Southampton one of the leading research enterprises in the world," said Sir Eric Ash. "His devotion to the advancement of science and academics is passionate and admirable."

Among the numerous awards and honors Payne has received are the top American, European and Japanese prizes in photonics. He has been honored with the UK Rank Prize for Optics, the US Tyndall Award (1991), the Benjamin Franklin Medal for Engineering (1998), the Japan C&C Foundation Award, an Eduard Rhein Laureate (Germany) and the Mountbatten Medal of the IEE (2001). In 2004 he was the recipient of the Kelvin Medal of the eight major engineering institutions for distinction in the application of science to engineering and in 2007, the IEEE Photonics Award, the first awarded outside the USA . Most recently he was elected to the Russian Academy of Sciences as one of only 240 foreign members.

Payne is a Fellow of the Royal Society and of the Royal Academy of Engineering. David and his wife Vanessa live in Hamble, Southampton. They have two sons, Stuart (26) and Ross (23). Stuart is pursuing a career in software support, while Ross plays semi-professional football. With his wife, Payne travels widely and particularly loves the Far East . He is an accomplished cook and scours the world on his travels for unusual ingredients for theme parties. He is also something of an amateur mechanic, motorcyclist and DIY enthusiast, perhaps a legacy from his heavy engineering days - as well as being an 'early adopter' of the latest electronics.

The Marconi Society was established in 1974 through an endowment set up by Gioia Marconi Braga , daughter of Guglielmo Marconi, the Nobel laureate who invented radio (wireless telegraphy).

The Marconi Society at Columbia University is best known for the Marconi Prize, awarded annually to an outstanding individual whose scope of work and influence emulate the principle of "creativity in service to humanity" that inspired Marconi. Through symposia, conferences, forums and publications, the Marconi Society promotes awareness of major innovations in communication theory, technology and applications with particular attention to understanding how they change and benefit society.

Additional information about the Marconi Society and the Marconi Fellows can be found at www.marconisociety.org.

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MARCONI SOCIETY
Columbia University
500 West 120th Street, 500 Mudd Building

MARCONI SOCIETY
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500 West 120th Street, 500 Mudd Building