Born on June 8, 1955 in England, Berners-Lee is the Director of the World Wide Web Consortium , Senior Researcher at MIT's CSAIL where he leads the Decentralized Information Group (DIG), and Professor of Computer Science at Southampton ECS today.
He is also an alumnus of the University of Oxford
In 1989, he invented the World Wide Web at CERN based on the earlier "Enquire" work, allowing people to work together by combining their knowledge in a web of hypertext documents.
Today, his work has been developed into the Internet, bringing mankind with it immeasurable amounts of convenience and expediency.
In 2004, he was knighted by the Queen for his efforts in the global development of Internet and received the Millennium Technology Prize , the world’s largest technological award. Indeed, his groundbreaking invention has been rewarded with Times Magazine naming him as “One of the 100 greatest minds of the century".
His Awards & Acolades
1995:
Kilby Foundation's "Young Innovator of the Year" Award
ACM Software Systems Award (co-recipient)
Honorary Prix Ars Electronica
Distinguished Fellow of the British Computer Society
1997:
Awarded an Order of the British Empire (OBE)
IEEE Koji Kobayashi Computers and Communications Award
Duddell Medal of the Institute of Physics
Interactive Services Association's Distinguished Service Award
MCI Computerworld/Smithsonian Award for Leadership in Innovation
International Communication Institute's Columbus Prize
1998:
Charles Babbage award
Mountbatten Medal of the National Electronics Council
Lord Lloyd of Kilgerran Prize from the Foundation for Science and Technology
PC Magazine Lifetime Achievement Award in Technical Excellence
MacArthur Fellowship
The Eduard Rhein Technology Award
Honorary Fellow, Institution of Electrical Engineers
1999:
Named "One of the 100 greatest minds of the century" by Time Magazine
World Technology Award for Communication Technology
Honorary Fellowship, The Society for Technical Communications
2000:
Paul Evan Peters Award of ARL, Educause and CNI
Electronic Freedom Foundation's Pioneer Award
George R Stibitz Computer Pioneer Award, American Computer Museum
Special Award for Outstanding Contribution of the World Television Forum
2001:
Sir Frank Whittle Medal, the Royal Academy of Engineering
Fellow,Royal Society
Member, American Academy of Arts and Sciences
2002:
Japan Prize, the Science and Technology Foundation of Japan
Prince of Asturias Foundation Prize for Scientific and Technical Research (shared with with Larry Roberts, Rob Kahn and Vint Cerf)
Fellow, Guglielmo Marconi Foundation
Albert Medal of the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Art, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA)
2004:
Knighted (KBE) by H.M. the Queen for services to the global development of the Internet
Millennium Technology Prize
Special Award of the American Society for Information Science and Technology
Member, American Philosophical Society
2005:
Common Wealth Award for Distinguished Service for Mass Communications
Die Quadriga Award
Financial Times Lifetime Achievement Award
2006:
President's Medal, the Institute of Physics
2007:
Awarded the Order of Merit by H.M. the Queen
Charles Stark Draper Prize, National Academy of Engineering
Lovelace Medal, British Computer Society
D&AD President's Award for Innovation and Creativity
MITX (Massachusetts Innovation & Technology Exchange) Leadership Award
Foreign Associate of the National Academy of Engineering
Honorary Degrees:
Parsons School of Design, New York (D.F.A., 1995)
Southampton University (D.Sc., 1995)
Essex University (D.U., 1998)
Southern Cross University (1998)
Open University (D.U., 2000)
Columbia University (D.Law, 2001)
Oxford University (D.Sc., 2001)
University of Port Elizabeth (DSc., 2002)
Lancaster University (D.Sc., 2004)
Literature Contributions
Weaving the Web: The Original Design and Ultimate Destiny of the World Wide ... By Tim Berners-Lee, Mark Fischetti
Everybody knows that Tim Berners-Lee is the man who invented the World Wide Web - and that he hasn't become a millionaire.
This book explains the reasons why.
It's his own account of one of the most profound developments in twentieth century technology - almost as important as the invention of the Net itself.
His story begins in one of the spiritual homes of computing - Manchester UK - where his both his parents worked on the first commercial mainframes made by Ferranti in the 1950s.
He wrote his first program to link information in 1980 with "no loftier reason than to help me remember the connections amongst the various people, computers and projects at the [CERN] lab".
His narrative is the now-familiar one of noble intentions battling against indifference, resistance, and outright opposition.
There is a wonderful sense of intellectual excitement in following the step-by-step struggle to convince people that information could be linked and shared.
And all this is as recent as 1990.
Once the Web takes off in the early 1990s, Tim Berners-Lee selflessly devotes his energies to keeping the Web universal, out of the control of individual interests.
His account culminates with a prediction that the Web will evolve into what he calls the 'Semantic Web' - a system whereby information will be more intelligently and qualitatively structured.
INFORMATION
Thursday, October 25, 2007
The above three mousepad designs were the brainchild of our group, as part of our promotion of the celebratory event for our project!
