[Sussex] Berners-Lee Wins Inaugural Millennium Technology Prize

[Phil Slade]

http://www.technologyawards.org/index.php?technologyawards=42dd0c7cf01889a59
e7ed271200f225f&article_id=3932&__from_id__=3907

Berners-Lee Wins Inaugural
Millennium Technology Prize
World Wide Web Inventor Receives One Million Euros
Prize from Finnish Technology Award Foundation
15th April 2004

World Wide Web inventor Tim Berners-Lee today was
named recipient of the first-ever Millennium Technology Prize.

The honor, which is accompanied by one million euros, is bestowed by the
Finnish Technology Award Foundation as an international acknowledgement of
outstanding technological innovation that directly promotes people?s quality
of life, is based on humane values, and encourages sustainable economic
development.

"The Web has significantly enhanced many people's ability to obtain
information central to their lives," says Pekka Tarjanne, former
secretary-general of the International Telecommunication Union and chairman
of the International Award Selection Committee. "The Web is encouraging new
types of social networks, supporting transparency and democracy, and opening
up novel avenues for information management and business development."

Work on the Web continues
Berners-Lee, with a background in system design in real-time communications
and text-processing software development, invented the Web while working at
CERN, world's largest particle physics laboratory in Geneva, Switzerland.

The web was first made available to the public in 1991. Berners-Lee created
the first server, browser, and protocols central to the operation of the
Web: the URL address, HTTP transmission protocol and HTML code.

Currently Berners-Lee works at the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) at the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (M.I.T.), in Boston.

He was born in London, UK in 1955 and graduated from Oxford University in
the UK. In 2003, Berners-Lee was named a Knight Commander of the Order of
the British Empire for his pioneering work.

Open nomination procedure
Seventy-eight innovators from 22 countries were nominated for the Millennium
Technology Prize 2004 in four technological fields: health care and life
sciences; communication and information; new materials and processes; and
energy and the environment.

Berners-Lee was nominated by two organisations: The Royal Academy of
Engineering in London, whose Fellow he is, as well as the Finnish IT center
for Science.

Berners-Lee's selection was made unanimously by the board of the Finnish
Technology Award Foundation at an April 14 meeting based on the
recommendation of the International Award Selection Committee.

Berners-Lee will be lauded at an award ceremony at Helsinki's Finlandia Hall
on June 15, 2004, held in conjunction with the inaugural Millennium
Technology Conference, "Future Society - Future Technology."

The Finnish Technology Award Foundation is an independent fund established
in 2002 and funded by the Finnish public and private sectors in partnership.
Future prizes will be awarded biennially.


Further information:
Chairman of the Award Selection Committee Pekka Tarjanne, 0400 101 222
Chairman of the Board Jaakko Ihamuotila, 050 577 3262
Representative Ossi Kokkonen, 050 64 416
Communications Officer Tytti Nahi, 041 577 6845