The Finnish Technology Award Foundation describes the selection of Tim Berners-Lee by unanimous vote of the International Award Selection Committee as recipient of the first Millennium Technology Prize.
The Finnish Millennium Technology Prize is awarded every other year for innovation based on scientific research in any of four disciplines: Health Care and Life Sciences, Communications and Information, New Materials and Processes, and Energy and the Environment. It is a technology award granted “for outstanding technological achievements that directly promote people’s quality of life, are based on humane values, and encourage sustainable economic development.”
Tim Berners-Lee, a graduate of Oxford University, England, “holds the 3Com Founders chair at the Laboratory for Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab (CSAIL) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).” 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 directs the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) at MIT, 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.