Littera Deusto

Modern Languages, Basque Studies and Humanities

← →

Tim Berners-Lee

octubre 4th, 2009 · No hay Comentarios

avatar tim berners-leeTim Berners-Lee was born the 8th of June of 1955 (aged 54) in the United Kingdom and became famous for inventing the World Wide Web.

He graduated in The Queen’s College, in Oxford and he started working in CERN (the European Particle Physics Laboratory in Geneva, Switzerland) as a software consultant, but this was only a temporary work so he had to leave. However, some years later he came back with a more permanent job. In 1989, he submitted a proposal to develop an information system that would create a web of information. Although anyone listened to his idea, he decided to carry on working on it, and that’s when he made the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (Also known as HTTP). Of course, he also had to do something which would read this HTTP, so he created the WWW. This hypertext pages had Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) format, and using this, he created the first server ever, which was called ‘info.cern.ch.’

CERN was still not very interested in his idea so he decided to turn to the Internet community. Making the WWW available for the Internet, he managed to get people to try it and make they own servers. After that, those people linked their page to CERN’s info page. This is how everything started. What started being just a simple idea to connect some scientist around the internet, now has more than 100 millions of websites.
So we can really say that the WWW is one of the most important inventions ever, and that it’s used by millions of people all around the world.

His job made him win lots of awards, and these are them:

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

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
  • Webby Awards Lifetime Achievement Award

Resources:

Etiquetas:

  • Etiquetas