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'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, +358-400 101 222
Chairman of the Board Jaakko Ihamuotila, +358-50 577 3262
Representative Ossi Kokkonen, +358-50 64 416
Communications Officer Tytti Nahi, +358-41 577 6845