Longer Biography
For those who want details for some reason. This is more or less a
collection of everything which has been asked for to date.
Background
In 1989, while working at at CERN, the
European Particle Physics Laboratory in Geneva, Switzerland, Tim
Berners-Lee proposed a global hypertext project, to be known as the World
Wide Web. Based on the earlier "Enquire" work, it was designed to allow
people to work together by combining their knowledge in a web of hypertext
documents. He wrote the first World Wide Web server, "httpd", and
the first client, "WorldWideWeb" a what-you-see-is-what-you-get
hypertext browser/editor which ran in the NeXTStep environment. This work
was started in October 1990, and the program "WorldWideWeb" first made
available within CERN in December, and on the Internet at large in the
summer of 1991.
Through 1991 and 1993, Tim continued working on the design of the Web,
coordinating feedback from users across the Internet. His initial
specifications of URIs, HTTP and HTML were refined and discussed in larger
circles as the Web technology spread.
Tim Berners-Lee graduated from the
Queen's College at Oxford University, England, 1976. Whilst there he
built his first computer with a soldering iron, TTL gates, an M6800
processor and an old television.
He spent two years with Plessey Telecommunications Ltd (Poole, Dorset,
UK) a major UK Telecom equipment manufacturer, working on distributed
transaction systems, message relays, and bar code technology.
In 1978 Tim left Plessey to join D.G Nash Ltd (Ferndown, Dorset, UK),
where he wrote among other things typesetting software for intelligent
printers, and a multitasking operating system.
A year and a half spent as an independent consultant included a six month
stint (Jun-Dec 1980) as consultant software engineer at CERN.
Whilst there, he wrote for his own private use his first program for
storing information including using random associations. Named "Enquire"
and never published, this program formed the conceptual basis for the
future development of the World Wide Web.
From 1981 until 1984, Tim worked at John Poole's Image Computer
Systems Ltd, with technical design responsibility. Work here
included real time control firmware, graphics and communications software,
and a generic macro language. In 1984, he took up a fellowship at CERN, to
work on distributed real-time systems for scientific data acquisition and
system control. Among other things, he worked on FASTBUS system software
and designed a heterogeneous remote procedure call system.
In 1994, Tim founded the World Wide Web Consortium at
the then Laboratory for Computer Science (LCS)
which merged with the Artificial Intelligence Lab in 2003 to become the
Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL)
at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He is Emeritus Director and an Honorary Member of the Board of Directors of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), a
Web standards organization which develops interoperable technologies
(specifications, guidelines, software, and tools) to lead the Web to its
full potential.
In 1999, he became the first holder of 3Com
Founders chairatMIT.
In 2008 he was named 3COM Founders Professor of Engineering in the School
of Engineering, with a joint appointment in the Department of Electrical
Engineering and Computer Science at CSAIL where he is now Professor Emeritus. He also lead the
Decentralized Information Group (DIG).
Co-Chaired by Dr. Lalana Kagal, the DIG Research Group works on projects
including: how to re-decentralize the Web and help radically change the
way Web applications work today, resulting in true data ownership; working
to ensure the rights of users in big data and analytics and systems; as
well as harnessing mobile technologies to aid during disaster relief and
help society.
The Decentralized Information Group,
works on the Solid Project to give
people control of their own data and to re-decentralize the Web. He is the
co-founder and CTO of inrupt, the
company launched to ensure the success of the Solid platform and its open
source community, and to build the ecosystem that supports it.
In 2016, Sir Tim joined the Computer
Science Department at the University of Oxford as a Professor.
In 2009 he founded and became Director of the World
Wide Web Foundation. The Web Foundation is a non-profit
organisation devoted to achieving a world in which all people can use the
Web to communicate, collaborate and innovate freely. The Web
Foundation works to fund and coordinate efforts to defend the Open Web and
further its potential to benefit humanity.
InJune 2009 then Prime Minister
Gordon Brown announced that he would work with the UK Government to help
make data more open and accessible on the Web, building on the work of the
Power of Information
Task Force. Sir Tim was a member of The
Public
Sector Transparency Board tasked to drive forward the UK
Government's transparency agenda. He has promoted open government
data globally, and was a member of the UK's Transparency Board.
In 2011 he was named to the Board of Trustees of the Ford
Foundation, a globally oriented private foundation with the mission
of advancing human welfare. He is President of the UK's Open
Data Institute which he founded with Sir Nigel Shadbolt in 2012 to
catalyse open data for economic, environmental, and social value.
He is the author, with Mark Fischetti, of the 1999 book "Weaving
the Web" on the the past present and future of the Web.
On March 18 2013, Sir Tim, along with Vinton Cerf, Robert Kahn, Louis
Pouzin and Marc Andreesen, was awarded the Queen
Elizabeth Prize for Engineering for "ground-breaking innovation in
engineering that has been of global benefit to humanity."
On 4 April 2017, Sir Tim was awarded the ACM
A.M. Turing Prize for inventing the World Wide Web, the first web
browser, and the fundamental protocols and algorithms allowing the Web to
scale. The Turing Prize, called the "Nobel Prize of Computing" is
considered one of the most prestigious awards in Computer Science.
1995:
World
Wide Web Hall of Fame
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)
2003
The Royal Photographic Society's Progress Medal and Honorary
Fellowship (HonFRPS)
Computer
History Museum Fellow Award
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
2008:
BITC Award
for Excellence
IEEE/RSE
Wolfson James Clerk Maxwell Award
Fellow, IEEE
Pathfinder
Award, Harvard Kennedy
School of Government
2009:
Foreign
Associate, National Academy of Sciences
Given the title of Royal Designer by the
Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufacture nd Commerce
Webby Awards Lifetime
Achievement Award
2010:
UNESCO
Niels Bohr Gold Medal Award
2011:
The Mikhail Gorbachev Award
DAMA
Web Awards, Bilbao Web Summit
Honorary
Fellow, British Academy
2012:
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Internet
Hall of Fame
Innovation 101 Lifetime Achievement Award
Sultan
Qaboos Order for Culture, Science and Arts (First Class)
DNA
Summit Lifetime Achievement Award
2013:
Shared the Queen Elizabeth II Prize
for Engineering with Bob Kahn, Vint Cerf, Louis Pouzin and Marc
Andreessen.
Visionary of the
Year Award, Society for New Communication Research.
2014:
Honorary Freedom of the City of London
Lifetime Achievement
Award from the Oxford Internet Institute
Pride
of Britain "Special Award for Outstanding Achievement"
Webby
award for Lifetime Achievement
Public
Knowledge IP3 Award
Bradford
Wasburn Award, Museum of Science, Boston
Mohammed bin Rashid Knowledge Award (with Jimmy Wales)
2015:
Gottlieb
Duttweiler Prize, Zurich, Switzerland
The 1st class Order of the Cross of Terra Mariana, Republic of
Estonia
2016:
John Maynard Keynes Prize
2017:
ACM
A.M. Turing Prize, San Francisco, California
2022:
Seoul Peace Prize
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 (PhD,
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)
Universitat
Oberta de Catalunya (Dr. Hon. 2008)
University
of Manchester (D.Sc., 2008)
Universidad
Politecnica de Madrid (Dr. Hon. 2009)
University of Liege
(Dr. Hon. 2009)
VU
University Amsterdam (Dr. Hon., 2009)
Harvard
University (D.Sc., 2011)
University
of the Arts, London (Dr. Hon., 2012)
University of St. Andrews
(Dr. Hon., 2013)
Yale University, (Doctor
of Engineering and Technology, 2014)
Rensselaer Polytechnic
Institute, D.Sc
Selected Publications
Berners-Lee, T.J., et al, "World-Wide Web: Information Universe",
Electronic Publishing: Research, Applications and Policy, April 1992.
Berners-Lee T.J., et al, "The
World Wide Web", Communications of the ACM, Volume 37 Issue
8, August 1994, Pages 76-82
Tim Berners-Lee with Mark Fischetti, Weaving the
Web, Harper San Francisco, 1999
Tim Berners-Lee, Dan Connolly, Ralph R. Swick "Web
Architecture: Describing and Exchanging Data", W3C Note,
1999/6-7.
Berners-Lee, Tim. and Hendler, James "Publishing
on
the Semantic Web", Nature, April 26 2001 p. 1023-1025.
Berners-Lee, Tim; Hendler, James and Lassila, Ora "The
Semantic
Web", Scientific American, May 2001, p. 29-37.
James Hendler, Tim Berners-Lee and Eric Miller, 'Integrating
Applications on the Semantic Web', Journal of the Institute
of Electrical Engineers of Japan,
Vol 122(10), October, 2002, p. 676-680
Hendler, J., Berners-Lee, T.J., and Miller, E., ' Integrating
Applications on the Semantic Web ', Journal of the
Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan, Vol 122(10), October, 2002, p.
676-680.
Nigel Shadbolt, Wendy Hall, Tim Berners-Lee, "The
Semantic
Web Revisited", IEEE Intelligent Systems Journal, May/June
2006, pp 96-101
Web
Science Workshop Report, 12th-13th September, 2005. Hosted
by the British Computer Society, London
Tim Berners-Lee, Wendy Hall, James Hendler, Nigel Shadbolt, Daniel J.
Weitzner, Enhanced:
Creating a Science of the Web, Science Vol. 313, 11 August
2006, pp. 769-771
Tim-Berners Lee, Wendy Hall, James A. Hendler, Kieron O'Hara, Nigel
Shadbolt and Daniel J. Weitzner, A
Framework for Web Science, Foundations and Trends in Web
Science, Volume 1, Issue 1 (also available as a book: ISBN: 1-933019-33-6
144pp September 2006)
Nigel Shadbolt, Tim Berners-Lee "Web
Science:
Studying the Internet to Protect Our Future", Scientific
American, Vol. 299, No. 4, P. 76, October 2008
Christian Bizer, Tom Heath, Tim Berners-Lee, "Linked
Data
- The Story So Far" (pdf), International Journal on
Semantic Web and Information Systems (IJSWIS), 5(3): 1-22. DOI:
10.4018/jswis.2009081901, 2009
Tim Berners-Lee, "Long
Live
the Web: A Call for Continued Open Standards and Neutrality",
Scientific America, Vol. 22, November 2010
(See a full list of publications)
Education
The Queen's College, Oxford
University, England, BA Hons (I) Physics, 1973-1976.
Emanuel School, London 1969-73
Born London, England, 8 June 1955. Married to Rosemary Leith.
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