For Immediate Release
BERNERS-LEE WINS INAUGURAL MILLENNIUM TECHNOLOGY
PRIZE
World Wide Web Inventor Receives One Million Euros Prize
from Finnish Technology Award Foundation
HELSINKI, April 15, 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 aimed at promoting
quality of life and sustainable economic and societal development. 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.”
“Many people have already benefited by Berners-Lee’s innovation,”
says Pekka Tarjanne, former director-general of the International Telecommunications
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.”
Berners-Lee, a graduate of England’s Oxford University, currently
holds the 3Com Founders Chair at the Laboratory for Computer Science
(LCS) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (M.I.T.), in Boston.
In 1989, with a background in system design in real-time communications
and text-processing software development, he invented the Web while
working at CERN, the European Particle Physics Laboratory in Geneva,
Switzerland. 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.
At LCS he established the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) in 1994 as
a forum for information, commerce, communication, and collective understanding.
W3C develops interoperable technologies (specifications, guidelines,
software, and tools) to lead the Web to its full potential. Since its
founding, Berners-Lee has served as the consortium’s director,
coordinating Web development worldwide with teams at M.I.T., INRIA in
France, and Keio University in Japan.
In 2003, Berners-Lee was named a Knight Commander of the Order of the
British Empire for his pioneering work. Complete biographical information
about Berners-Lee is at www.w3.org/People/Berners-Lee.
Seventy-eight innovators from 22 countries were nominated for the Millennium
Technology Prize 2004 in four technological fields: energy and the environment;
communication and information; new materials and processes; or healthcare
and life sciences. 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. Future prizes will be awarded biennially.
About the Finnish Technology Award Foundation
The Finnish Technology Award Foundation is an independent fund established
in 2002 by eight Finnish organizations: the Confederation of Finnish
Industry and Employers; the Finnish Academies of Technology; the Finnish
Academy of Technology; the Finnish Association of Graduated Engineers;
the Foundation of Finnish Inventions; the Foundation of Technology;
the Swedish Academy of Engineering in Finland; and the Walter Ahlström
Foundation. Its mission is to promote scientific research aimed at developing
new technology that will have a positive effect on the quality of life
and to encourage wide-ranging networking around similar goals.
The foundation was created through united efforts of the Finnish Academies
of Technology and Finnish Government and Finnish businesses.
For information about the foundation and the award, please visit www.technologyawards.org
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For the Finnish Technology Award Foundation:
Taryn Lynds
Office: (212) 420-8383, ext.104, Cell: (917) 232-8547
Email: tlynds@plesser.com
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For Tim Berners-Lee: Janet Daly
Office: (617) 253-5884, Cell: (206) 228-1097
Email: janet@w3.org |
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