Henry Samueli, the co-founder of Irvine-based Broadcom, has been awarded a major prize for his work in growing the consumer broadband industry. Samueli has bene awarded the 2012 Marconi Society Prize and Fellowship form the Marconi Society, a group which awards a scientist or engineer an award each year for their efforts in the field of communication and information science. Samueli co-founded Broadcom in 1991 with Ph.D. student Henry Nicholas, when he was a professor at UCLA. The prize is given to scientists and engineers who "achieve advances in communications and information technology for the social, economic and cultural development of all humanity."