The Men Who Continue to Organize the World’s Information Will Receive Marconi Foundation Prize, the Highest Award in Engineering.
Sergey Brin and Larry Page, who as Stanford graduate students successfully created the Google search engine, have been named the 2004 Fellows of the Marconi Foundation at Columbia University. In announcing their selection, John Jay Iselin, the Foundation’s president, congratulated the two men for their invention that has fundamentally changed the way information is retrieved today.
The two award winners will join a select cadre of 32 of the world’s most influential communications technology pioneers who since 1975 have been awarded the honor named for Guglielmo Marconi, 1909 recipient of the Nobel Prize for pioneering wireless transmissions.
Tim Berners-Lee, 2002 Marconi Fellowship recipient, said, “Google held a mirror up to us, reflecting the myriad little actions of linking as a set of concepts which society has discussed and sought.”
“Sergey Brin and Larry Page developed the Google search engine to better organize unprecedented amounts of information, efficiently respond to hundreds of millions of daily online queries, instantaneously return relevant results and reach users from around the world. These two talented men have brought a sense of order to the enormous scale of the World Wide Web,” according to Guglielmo Marconi’s grandson and Foundation chairman, Francesco Paresce Marconi.
“On behalf of Google, Larry and I are honored to be recipients of the Marconi Fellowships,” said Sergey Brin, co-founder and president, Technology, Google Inc. “This award affirms the value of Google’s mission, to organize the world’s information and make it widely accessible and useful.”
In 1995 Brin and Page developed the Internet application that has become an important tool for students seeking immediate homework help; for business professionals scanning the competitive landscape; for homemakers looking for a new twist on an old recipe; even for shoppers searching for bargains. Google’s innovative technology stems from the work of these two young men who tapped the power of the Internet for a worldwide community of people, who can share information, seek knowledge and communicate with ease.
“As we celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Marconi Foundation, the contributions of Sergey Brin and Larry Page exemplify the convergence of science, business and technology that have characterized the telecommunications revolution of the Marconi Century,” said Darcy Gerbarg, the Foundation’s executive director.
The honorees will be presented their awards and a $100,000 honorarium on October 8, 2004, at the Foundation’s 30th anniversary celebration in Bologna, Italy. Following the tradition started by the Fellows, Sergey Brin and Larry Page will donate their honorarium to the Fellows Fund at the Marconi Foundation.
Recent Marconi Fellows include Robert Metcalfe, inventor of the Ethernet, Robert Gallager, creator of advanced communications codes, and Tim Berners-Lee, architect of the World Wide Web.
Murdok | Breaking eBusiness News
Your source for investigative ebusiness reporting and breaking news.
