The Marconi Society named John L. Hennessy as the recipient of the  2026 Marconi Society Lifetime Achievement Award in recognition of a career that embodies the very qualities this distinction was created to honor. The 2026 Marconi Society Lifetime Achievement Award recognizes Hennessy's work on Reduced Instruction Set Computer (RISC) architecture, developed at Stanford in the early 1980s, that changed how processors are designed and underlies much of modern computing. Hennessy carried research into industry, co-founding MIPS Computer Systems and later Atheros Communications, which helped bring WiFi into widespread use. 

John Hennessy is President Emeritus, Shriram Family Director of the Knight-Hennessy Scholars Program, James F. and Mary Lynn Gibbons Professor and Professor of Electrical Engineering and of Computer Science. Among his many accomplishments, Hennessy was director of the Computer Systems Laboratory, a research and teaching center operated by the Departments of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science that fosters research in computer systems design. He served as chair of computer science and was named dean of the School of Engineering. As dean, he launched a five-year plan that laid the groundwork for new activities in bioengineering and biomedical engineering. In 1999, he was named provost, the university’s chief academic and financial officer, and in October 2000, he was inaugurated as Stanford University’s 10th president, a position he held until 2016. In 2016, he cofounded the Knight-Hennessy Scholars Program, which provides scholarships and leadership development for a global community of scholars enrolled in graduate programs at Stanford. The program admitted its first class in 2018 with the mission to prepare the next generation of leaders to address the complex challenges facing humanity.

The Marconi Society Lifetime Achievement Award recognizes individuals with an established history of distinguished work who, during their lifetimes, have made creative contributions and a positive impact to the field of communications and to the development of the careers of others. The Marconi Society builds communities of leaders and stakeholders at the forefront of emerging technology to create a more connected and sustainable world. Through its Institutes in AI, Internet Resilience, and Advanced Wireless, the Marconi Society convenes global experts to advance technologies that benefit society.