MOUNTAIN VIEW, CALIF.—The Marconi Society has picked the recipient for its 2017 Marconi Prize, tapping former Bell Labs President Dr. Arun Netravali. The award is handed out annually by the society named after Guglielmo Marconi, recognizing those who pursue advances in communications and information technology for social, economic and cultural development.

Netravali helped work on video compression standards that served as the key base technology for MPEG 1, 2 and 4 and enabled things like digital TV, HDTV and streaming video.

“Few things have had a greater impact on communications in recent years than the digital revolution led by Arun,” said Dr. Vint Cerf, chairman of the Marconi Society and chief internet evangelist at Google. “Everywhere you look, video is transforming the way we communicate on mobile devices and how we consume entertainment and news.”

Arun Netravali

Netravali joins past winners of the Marconi Prize that include Dr. Robert Kahn, Sir Tim Berners-Lee, Dr. Robert Metcalfe, Andrew Chraplyvy and John Cioffi.

The award ceremony will take place on Oct. 3 in Summit, N.J. During the event, the Marconi Society will also hand out the 2017 Paul Baran Young Scholars Award and its Lifetime Achievement Award.