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<h2><a href="Overview.html">Sir Timothy Berners-Lee OM, KBE, FRS, FREng,
FRSA</a></h2>

<h1>Longer Biography</h1>

<p>For those who want details for some reason. This is more or less a
collection of everything which has been asked for to date.</p>

<h4>Background</h4>

<p>In 1989, while working at at <a href="http://www.cern.ch/">CERN</a>, 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, "<i>httpd</i>", and the first client,
"<i>WorldWideWeb</i>" 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.</p>

<p>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.</p>

<p></p>

<p>Tim Berners-Lee graduated from <a href="http://www.queens.ox.ac.uk/">the
Queen's College</a><a></a> 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.</p>

<p>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.</p>

<p>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.</p>

<p>A year and a half spent as an independent consultant included a six month
stint (Jun-Dec 1980)as consultant software engineer at <a
href="http://www.cern.ch/">CERN</a>. 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.</p>

<p>From 1981 until 1984, Tim worked at John Poole's <i>Image Computer Systems
Ltd</i>, 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.</p>

<p></p>

<p></p>

<p>In 1994, Tim founded the <a href="/">World Wide Web Consortium</a> at the
then Laboratory for Computer Science (<a
href="http://www.lcs.mit.edu/">LCS</a>) which merged with the Artificial
Intelligence Lab in 2003 to become the Computer Science and Artificial
Intelligence Laboratory (<a href="http://www.csail.mit.edu/">CSAIL</a>) at the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (<a href="http://web.mit.edu/">MIT</a>).
Since that time he has served as the Director of the World Wide Web Consortium
a Web standards organization which develops interoperable technologies
(specifications, guidelines, software, and tools) to lead the Web to its full
potential. The Consortium has host sites located at MIT, at <a
href="http://www.ercim.org/">ERCIM</a> in Europe, and at Keio University in
Japan as well as <a href="../../Consortium/Offices/">Offices</a> around the
world. </p>

<p>In 1999, he became the first holder of the <a href="3ComFounders.html">3Com
Founders chair</a>. He is currently the 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 also heads the
Decentralized Information Group (<a href="http://dig.csail.mit.edu/">DIG</a>).
In December 2004 he was named a Professor in the <a
href="http://www.ecs.soton.ac.uk/">Computer Science Department</a> at the
University of Southampton, UK. He is co-Director of the <a
href="http://www.webscience.org/">Web Science Trust</a>, launched in 2006 as
the Web Science Research Initiative, to help create the first multidisciplinary
research body to examine the World Wide Web and offer the practical solutions
needed to help guide its future use and design. He is a Director of the <a
href="http://www.webfoundation.org/">World Wide Web Foundation</a>, started in
2008 to fund and coordinate efforts to further the potential of the Web to
benefit humanity.</p>

<p>In <a href="../../News/2009#item98">June 2009</a> then Prime Minister Gordon
Brown announced that Sir Tim Berners-Lee would work with the UK Government to
help make data more open and accessible on the Web, building on the work of the
<a href="http://powerofinformation.wordpress.com/">Power of Information Task
Force</a>. Sir Tim is currently a member of <a
href="http://www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/content/public-sector-transparency-board-who%27s-who">The
Public Sector Transparency Board</a> to drive forward the UK Government&rsquo;s
transparency agenda.</p>

<p>He is the author, with Mark Fischetti, of the book "<a
href="Weaving/Overview.html">Weaving the Web</a>" on the the past present and
future of the Web.</p>

<p></p>
<hr>

<h4>Awards</h4>
<dl>
  <dt>1995:</dt>
    <dd><a href="http://www.kilby.org/">Kilby Foundation's</a> "Young Innovator
      of the Year" Award</dd>
    <dd><a href="http://www.acm.org/awards/ssaward.html">ACM Software Systems
      Award</a> (co-recipient) <br>
      Honorary <a href="http://www.aec.at/">Prix Ars Electronica<br>
      </a><a
      href="http://wam.bcs.org/wam/memberdirectory.aspx?letter=B">Distinguished
      Fellow</a> of the British Computer Society<br>
    </dd>
  <dt>1997:</dt>
    <dd>Awarded an <a href="http://www.royal.gov.uk/output/page498.asp">Order
      of the British Empire</a> (OBE)<br>
      IEEE Koji Kobayashi Computers and Communications Award</dd>
    <dd><a href="http://physics.iop.org/IOP/Awards/duddell.html">Duddell
      Medal</a> of the Institute of Physics<br>
      Interactive Services Association's Distinguished Service Award<br>
      <a href="http://innovate.si.edu/">MCI Computerworld/Smithsonian</a> Award
      for Leadership in Innovation <br>
      International Communication Institute's Columbus Prize<br>
    </dd>
  <dt>1998:</dt>
    <dd>Charles Babbage award<br>
      Mountbatten Medal of the National Electronics Council<br>
      Lord Lloyd of Kilgerran Prize from the Foundation for Science and
      Technology<br>
      PC Magazine Lifetime Achievement Award in Technical Excellence<br>
      <a href="http://www.macfdn.org/programs/fel/fel_overview.htm">MacArthur
      Fellowship</a><br>
      <a href="http://www.eduard-rhein-stiftung.de/">The Eduard Rhein
      Technology Award</a><br>
      Honorary Fellow, <a href="http://www.iee.org.uk/">Institution of
      Electrical Engineers</a><br>
    </dd>
  <dt>1999:</dt>
    <dd>Named "One of the 100 greatest minds of the century" by Time
      Magazine<br>
      World Technology Award for Communication Technology<br>
      Honorary Fellowship, The Society for Technical Communications</dd>
  <dt>2000:</dt>
    <dd><a href="http://www.educause.edu/awards/pep/pep.html">Paul Evan Peters
      Award</a> of ARL, Educause and CNI<br>
      <a href="http://www.eff.org/">Electronic Freedom Foundation</a>'s Pioneer
      Award<br>
      <a href="http://www.compuseum.org/Pioneers.html">George R Stibitz
      Computer Pioneer Award,</a> <a href="http://www.compuseum.org/">American
      Computer Museum</a> <br>
      Special Award for Outstanding Contribution of the World Television
      Forum<br>
    </dd>
  <dt>2001:</dt>
    <dd><a href="http://www.raeng.org.uk/prizes/whittle/">Sir Frank Whittle
      Medal,</a> the <a href="http://www.raeng.org.uk/">Royal Academy of
      Engineering</a><br>
      Fellow,<a href="http://www.royalsoc.ac.uk/">Royal Society</a><br>
      Member, <a href="http://www.amacad.org/">American Academy of Arts and
      Sciences</a><br>
    </dd>
  <dt>2002:</dt>
    <dd><a href="http://www.japanprize.jp/e_what_is_jp.htm">Japan Prize</a>,
      the <a href="http://www.japanprize.jp/English.htm">Science and Technology
      Foundation of Japan</a><br>
      <a href="http://www.fpa.es/">Prince of Asturias Foundation</a> Prize for
      Scientific and Technical Research (shared with with Larry Roberts, Rob
      Kahn and Vint Cerf)<br>
      Fellow, <a href="http://www.marconifoundation.org/">Guglielmo Marconi
      Foundation</a><br>
      <a href="http://www.rsa.org.uk/events/a_medal.asp">Albert Medal</a> of
      the <a href="http://www.rsa.org.uk/">Royal Society for the Encouragement
      of Art, Manufactures and Commerce</a> (RSA)<br>
    </dd>
  <dt>2004:</dt>
    <dd><a
      href="http://www.fco.gov.uk/servlet/Front?pagename=OpenMarket/Xcelerate/ShowPage&amp;c=Page&amp;cid=1007029391629&amp;a=KArticle&amp;aid=1071660943874">Knighted</a>
      (KBE) by H.M. the Queen for services to the global development of the
      Internet <br>
      <a
      href="http://www.technologyawards.org/index.php?technologyawards=4147b8345404a1ce4465d1f92e318fa2&amp;article_id=3184">Millennium
      Technology Prize</a><br>
      <a href="http://www.asis.org/awards/2004_winners.html">Special Award</a>
      of the American Society for Information Science and Technology<br>
      Member, <a href="http://www.amphilsoc.org/about/">American Philosophical
      Society</a><br>
    </dd>
  <dt>2005:</dt>
    <dd><a href="http://www.sigmaxi.org/programs/prizes/common.shtml">Common
      Wealth Award</a> for Distinguished Service for Mass Communications<br>
      <a href="http://www.diequadriga.com/">Die Quadriga Award</a><br>
      Financial Times Lifetime Achievement Award</dd>
  <dt>2006:</dt>
    <dd><a
      href="http://www.iop.org/activity/awards/The_President's_Medal/page_1728.html">President's
      Medal</a>, the Institute of Physics</dd>
  <dt>2007:</dt>
    <dd>Awarded the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Order_of_merit">Order
      of Merit</a> by H.M. the Queen<br>
      <a
      href="http://www.nae.edu/nae/awardscom.nsf/Multi+Database+Search/862570B60074AEDD8625725A0069E09D?OpenDocument">Charles
      Stark Draper Prize</a>, National Academy of Engineering<br>
      <a href="http://www.bcs.org/server.php?show=nav.5932">Lovelace Medal,</a>
      British Computer Society<br>
      <a
      href="http://www.digitalartsonline.co.uk/news/index.cfm?NewsID=7975">D&amp;AD
      President's Award</a> for Innovation and Creativity<br>
      MITX (Massachusetts Innovation &amp; Technology Exchange) <a
      href="http://www.mimc.org/main.cfm?sec_id=12&amp;guid=7cc8c0bf-4743-46be-97ca-ed63ef77b23b&amp;detail=257">Leadership
      Award</a><br>
      Foreign Associate of the National Academy of Engineering</dd>
  <dt>2008:</dt>
    <dd>BITC <a
      href="http://www.bitc.org.uk/awards_for_excellence/awards_videos/awards_2008/gala_dinner_2008_videos/">Award
      for Excellence</a></dd>
    <dd><a
      href="http://www.ieee.org/portal/pages/about/awards/bios/2008Recips/2008maxwell-Lee.html">IEEE/RSE
      Wolfson James Clerk Maxwell Award</a><br>
      Fellow, <a href="http://www.ieee.org/portal/site/iportals">IEEE</a><br>
      <a
      href="http://www.hks.harvard.edu/news-events/news/press-releases/sir-timothy-berners-lee-to-receive-pathfinder-award">Pathfinder
      Award</a>, <a href="http://www.hks.harvard.edu/">Harvard Kennedy School
      of Government</a></dd>
  <dt>2009:</dt>
    <dd><a
      href="http://www8.nationalacademies.org/onpinews/newsitem.aspx?RecordID=04282009">Foreign
      Associate</a>, National Academy of Sciences<br>
      Webby Awards <a
      href="http://www.webbyawards.com/webbys/specialachievement13.php/#berners-lee">Lifetime
      Achievement Award</a></dd>
  <dt>2010: </dt>
    <dd><a
      href="http://news.ku.dk/all_news/2010/2010.9/unesco_niels_bohr_gold_medal_awarded_to_prominent_physicists_kopi/">UNESCO
      Niels Bohr Gold Medal Award</a> </dd>
  <dt>2011: </dt>
    <dd><a href="http://www.gorby80.com/">The Mikhail Gorbachev Award</a></dd>
    <dd><a
      href="http://www.bilbaowebsummit.com/pages_en/awards/awards.html">DAMA
      Web Awards, Bilbao Web Summit</a></dd>
</dl>
<dl>
  <dt><strong>Honorary Degrees:</strong></dt>
  <dt></dt>
    <dd><a href="http://www.parsons.edu/">Parsons School of Design</a>, New
      York (D.F.A., 1995)</dd>
    <dd><a href="http://www.soton.ac.uk/">Southampton University</a> (D.Sc.,
      1995)<br>
      Essex University (D.U., 1998)<br>
      <a href="http://www.scu.edu.au/">Southern Cross University</a> (1998)<br>
      <a href="http://www.open.ac.uk/">Open University</a> (D.U., 2000)<br>
      <a href="http://www.columbia.edu/">Columbia University</a> (D.Law,
      2001)<br>
      <a href="http://www.ox.ac.uk/">Oxford University</a> (D.Sc., 2001)<br>
      <a href="http://www.upe.ac.za/">University of Port Elizabeth</a> (DSc.,
      2002) <br>
      <a
      href="http://domino.lancs.ac.uk/info/lunews.nsf/I/2768F56EB38B32F780256ECC00404E69">Lancaster
      University</a> (D.Sc., 2004)<br>
      <a href="http://www.uoc.edu/hc/berners-lee/eng/acte.html">Universitat
      Oberta de Catalunya </a>(2008)</dd>
    <dd><a
      href="http://www.manchester.ac.uk/aboutus/news/display/?id=4216">University
      of Manchester</a> (2008)</dd>
    <dd><a
      href="http://www2.upm.es/portal/site/internacional/menuitem.391efba82ffd871bb92c3010907c46a8/?vgnextoid=ae916874729c0210VgnVCM10000009c7648aRCRD">Universidad
      Politécnica de Madrid</a> (2009)<br>
      Université de Liège (2009)</dd>
    <dd><a
      href="http://www.cs.vu.nl/en/news-agenda/news-archive/2009/Honorary_Doctorate_Sir_Berners-Lee.asp">VU
      University Amsterdam</a> (2009)</dd>
    <dd><a
      href="http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2011/05/harvard-to-award-nine-honorary-degrees/#berners-lee">Harvard
      University</a> (2011)</dd>
</dl>

<h4>Selected Publications </h4>

<p>Berners-Lee, T.J., et al, "World-Wide Web: Information Universe",
<em>Electronic Publishing: Research, Applications and Policy</em>, April
1992.</p>

<p>Berners-Lee T.J., et al, "The World Wide Web", <em>Communications of the
ACM</em>, August 1994.</p>

<p>Tim Berners-Lee with Mark Fischetti, <em><a href="Weaving">Weaving the
Web</a></em>, Harper San Francisco, 1999</p>

<p>Tim Berners-Lee, Dan Connolly, Ralph R. Swick "<a
href="/1999/04/WebData">Web Architecture: Describing and Exchanging Data</a>",
W3C Note, 1999/6-7.</p>

<p>Berners-Lee, Tim. and Hendler, James "<a
href="http://www.nature.com/cgi-taf/DynaPage.taf?file=/nature/journal/v410/n6832/full/4101023b0_fs.html">Publishing
on the Semantic Web</a>", Nature, April 26 2001 p. 1023-1025.</p>

<p>Berners-Lee, Tim; Hendler, James and Lassila, Ora "<a
href="http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?articleID=00048144-10D2-1C70-84A9809EC588EF21">The
Semantic Web</a>", Scientific American, May 2001, p. 29-37.</p>

<p>James Hendler, Tim Berners-Lee and Eric Miller, '<a
href="/2002/07/swint">Integrating Applications on the Semantic Web</a>',
Journal of the Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan, <br>
Vol 122(10), October, 2002, p. 676-680</p>

<p>Hendler, J., Berners-Lee, T.J., and Miller, E., ' <a
href="/2002/07/swint">Integrating Applications on the Semantic Web</a> ',
Journal of the Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan, Vol 122(10),
October, 2002, p. 676-680.</p>

<p>Nigel Shadbolt, Wendy Hall, Tim Berners-Lee, "<a
href="http://eprints.ecs.soton.ac.uk/12614/01/Semantic_Web_Revisted.pdf">The
Semantic Web Revisited</a>", IEEE Intelligent Systems Journal, May/June 2006,
96-101</p>

<p>Web Science Workshop Report12th-13th September, 2005. Hosted by the British
Computer Society, London</p>

<p>Tim Berners-Lee, Wendy Hall, James Hendler, Nigel Shadbolt, Daniel J.
Weitzner, &ldquo;<a
href="http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/313/5788/769?ijkey=o66bodkFqpcCs&amp;keytype=ref&amp;siteid=sci">Computer
Science: Enhanced: Creating a Science of the Web</a>&rdquo;, Science Vol. 313,
11 August 2006: 769-771Nigel Shadbolt, Wendy Hall, Tim Berners-Lee, &ldquo;The
Semantic Web Revisited&rdquo;, IEEE Intelligent Systems Journal, </p>

<p>Tim-Berners Lee, Wendy Hall, James A. Hendler, Kieron O'Hara, Nigel Shadbolt
and Daniel J. Weitzner, &ldquo;<a
href="http://www.nowpublishers.com/product.aspx?product=WEB&amp;doi=1800000001">A
Framework for Web Science</a>&rdquo;, Foundations and Trends in Web Science,
Volume 1, Issue 1 (also available as a book: ISBN: 1-933019-33-6 144pp
September 2006)</p>

<p>Nigel Shadbolt, Tim Berners-Lee "<a
href="http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=web-science">Web
Science: Studying the Internet to Protect Our Future</a>", Scientific American,
Vol. 299, No. 4, P. 76, October 2008</p>

<p>Christian Bizer, Tom Heath, Tim Berners-Lee, "<a
href="http://tomheath.com/papers/bizer-heath-berners-lee-ijswis-linked-data.pdf">Linked
Data - The Story So Far</a>"(pdf), International Journal on Semantic Web and
Information Systems (IJSWIS), 5(3): 1-22. DOI: 10.4018/jswis.2009081901,
2009</p>

<p>Tim Berners-Lee, <a
href="http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=long-live-the-web">"Long
Live the Web: A Call for Continued Open Standards and Neutrality</a>",
Scientific America, Vol. 22, November 2010</p>
<dl>
  <dt>(See a full list of <a
  href="http://www.w3.org/People/Berners-Lee/Publications.html">publications</a>)</dt>
</dl>

<p></p>

<h4>Education</h4>

<p><a href="http://www.queens.ox.ac.uk/">The Queen's College</a>, Oxford
University, England, BA Hons (I) Physics, 1973-1976.</p>

<p><a href="http://www.emanuel.org.uk/">Emanuel School</a>, London 1969-73</p>

<p>Born London, England, 8 June 1955. Separated, two children.</p>

<p></p>

<p></p>
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