The last event organized directly by the Marconi.150 National Committee has just concluded in Milan, marking the end of a year dedicated to the celebrations for the 150th anniversary of the birth of Guglielmo Marconi. The event took place at the Leonardo da Vinci National Museum of Science and Technology, a symbolic place that also preserves the legacy of the great inventor and pioneer of telecommunications. The result of the close collaboration started at the beginning of 2024 between the Marconi.150 National Committee and the Navy, the conference Pioneers in the Underwater Dimension It represented a significant step in the exploration of underwater telecommunications, a frontier of technological innovation crucial to international security.
The scientific conference highlighted how the real challenge today is to transmit messages safely underwater, a central necessity for modern communications, especially in a geopolitical context that raises important security issues, including those related to defense and environmental protection.
The Leonardo da Vinci National Museum of Science and Technology in Milan, specifically chosen to host this event, is a symbol of scientific conservation and dissemination, as well as the custodian of the memory of Guglielmo Marconi, who was a key figure in the foundation of the museum: as President of the National Research Council, in the 1930s, he helped lay the foundations of the new museum institution together with the founder Guido Ucelli di Nemi.
The conference took place in the steamship's ballroom Count Biancamano, preserved in the naval section of the museum, the transatlantic liner on which Marconi embarked in 1927 with his new wife Maria Cristina Bezzi Scali, his second wife and mother of his youngest child: Elettra Marconi.
Giulia Fortunato, president of the Marconi.150 National Committee, expressed satisfaction for the collaboration with the Navy, Fincantieri and Terna, which allowed the realization of the event: "I am particularly pleased with the collaboration that has made this event possible, an idea that was born at the start of the National Committee's work in this eventful 2024. What seemed like an impossible challenge in the days of the young Marconi - transmitting a message wirelessly in the ether - today translates into a new and fascinating frontier: underwater telecommunications. The ocean depths, once considered inaccessible and mysterious, today represent a territory to explore and conquer: overcoming the difficulties posed by the underwater environment to send messages effectively and safely requires cutting-edge solutions and extraordinary ingenuity. This progress does not only represent a milestone for innovation, but a necessary response to concrete needs ranging from scientific research to environmental protection, up to strategic areas such as defense and international security."
The event also saw the participation of experts from the Navy, the academic and industrial worlds, concluding with the presentation of the KM3NET project, a cutting edge in seabed observation and underwater telecommunications. Rear Admiral Vito Lacerenza, head of the submarine department and underwater dimension of the Navy General Staff, added: “The underwater dimension is playing an increasingly important role, representing at the same time an extraordinary opportunity for the wealth of resources and a crucial challenge for the protection of national interests. The commitment of the Navy, which carries out surveillance and protection activities of the underwater environment and promotes innovation in this sector, fits into this context. In this regard, the National Center for the Underwater Dimension is configured as a technological hub that brings together excellence from the industrial, university and research worlds, promoting an indispensable synergy for the development of technologies needed to operate in the underwater environment. The growing proliferation of interests and actors in this dimension also requires suitable regulation to guarantee safe and sustainable access.”
The event, in addition to celebrating technological progress, represented a moment of discussion on the challenges and opportunities related to an underwater dimension that increasingly intertwines scientific, industrial and geopolitical interests.
The activities of the National Committee for the celebrations of the 150th anniversary of the birth of Guglielmo Marconi, however, do not stop with the end of the year: established by the Ministry of Culture for the three-year period 2024-2026, the Committee is preparing in 2025 to celebrate the 130th anniversary of Marconi's first wireless signal. It was in fact in 1895 that the very young Marconi, at the age of 21, managed to transmit the first signal. wireless beyond the Celestini Hill, which characterizes the landscape in front of his family's country residence, Villa Griffone, which since 1938 has been the headquarters of the Foundation that bears his name.
