AESS Historical Interviews: Princess Marconi
AESS Historial interview with Princess Marconi by Alfonso Farina.
Princess Marconi, a witness of her father's inventions and story, tells herself in a conversation with Alfonso Farina, one of the fathers of modern radar: "Dad organized radio links all over the world to hear my voice"
“In the radio we have an essential tool to bring the peoples of the world closer together, to make their voices, needs and aspirations heard mutually. The meaning of these modern means of communication is thus totally revealed: a broad channel for the development of our relationships is available to us today, we just have to follow its course in a spirit of tolerance and sympathy, eager to use the achievements of science. and human ingenuity for the common good. "
It was March 11, 1937 and Guglielmo Marconi uttered these words during his speech at the Chicago Tribune Forum , prefiguring the scenarios that would take shape during the twentieth century. The cell phone , the television , the radar, browsing the Internet , the satellite imagery: the applications that today are part of our daily life are the final synthesis of a series of technological evolutions that find their common matrix in the new modes of transmission of electromagnetic waves. In summary, in the radio.
Traveling on the thread of memories, Elettra Marconi relives some of the most significant moments in the activity of Guglielmo Marconi. The interview, conducted by Alfonso Farina and the journalist Silvana Iannaccone , was organized as part of a project by the Radar & Sensors Academy Leonardo , of which Farina is president. It was a training course to disseminate the Italian technological heritage and beyond, promoted by Leonardo. Farina, considered one of the fathers of modern radar, has long been one of the company's executives.
The 90-year-old daughter of the great inventor retraces the fundamental stages of her father's career, relived through personal memories. From "blind navigation," to experience the nascent radar technology, to the first example of a "cell phone" for Pope Pius XI , from the emotion of the phone call with his father in the middle of the Pacific, to the testimony of the first television broadcast in history.
A continuous exploration, driven by a global vision and the ability to anticipate the times. Those same peculiarities that today are the basis of our way of "doing business," in which research and innovation guide the evolution of technologies over time, to put them at the service of people, society and the planet.
Instructor
Alfonso Farina
Alfonso Farina (FREng, FIET, LFIEEE, Fellow of EURASIP, EurASc) received the Doctoral – Laurea - degree in electronic engineering from the University of Rome, Rome, Italy, in 1973. In 1974, he joined SELENIA S.P.A., then Selex ES, where he became the Director of the Analysis of Integrated Systems Unit and, subsequently, the Director of Engineering of the Large Business Systems Division. In 2012, he was the Senior VP and the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of the Company, reporting directly to the President. From 2013 to 2014, he was a Senior Advisor to the CTO. He retired in October 2014. From 1979 to 1985, he was also a Professor of Radar Techniques with the University of Naples, Italy. He is currently a Visiting Professor with the Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering at University College London and with the Centre of Electronic Warfare, Information and Cyber at Cranfield University, a Distinguished Lecturer of the IEEE Aerospace and Electronic Systems Society and a Distinguished Industry Lecturer for the IEEE Signal Processing Society (Jan 2018-Dec 2019). He is a Consultant to Leonardo S.p.A. “Land & Naval Defence Electronics Division” (Rome). He has authored or co-authored more than 800 peer-reviewed technical papers and books and monographs (published worldwide), some of them also translated in to Russian and Chinese. He received the IEEE Dennis J. Picard Medal for Radar Technologies and Applications for “Continuous, Innovative, Theoretical, and Practical Contributions to Radar Systems and Adaptive Signal Processing Techniques” (2010). IEEE Signal Processing Society Industrial Leader Award (2018). Christian Hülsmeyer Award from the German Institute of Navigation (DGON) (2019). IEEE AESS Pioneer Award (2020). Honorary chair of IEEE RadarConf 2020, Florence. The 26 October 2018 he was interviewed, among few top managers of the Company, at RAI Storia for the “70th anniversario di Leonardo Company” (“70th anniversary of Leonardo Company”).
Who Should attend: Young Professionals, Professionals in Space
Publication Year: 2022