50 Plus Hub
Engraved portrait of Tim Berners-Lee
Voices & Culture · 1990s

Tim Berners-Lee

Still with us 1955–present
Inventing the World Wide Web, HTTP, HTML and URLsKnown for
First-class physics degree, Queen's College, Oxford (1976)Education
KBE knighthood (2004), Order of Merit (2007), Turing Award (2016)Honors
W3C (1994), Web Foundation (2009), Inrupt/Solid (2018)Founded
London 2012 Olympics tweet 'This is for everyone'Famous moment
The Turning Point

In March 1989, while a software engineer at CERN, Berners-Lee submitted a proposal titled 'Information Management: A Proposal' to manage the lab's tangled documentation. His manager Mike Sendall famously scrawled 'vague, but exciting' on it and let him proceed. By late 1990 he had written the first web browser, server, and the HTTP, HTML, and URL standards, inventing the World Wide Web.

Born to Build

Timothy John Berners-Lee was born in London on June 8, 1955, to Mary Lee Woods and Conway Berners-Lee, mathematicians who worked on the Ferranti Mark 1, one of the first commercial computers. A childhood trainspotter, he learned electronics tinkering with model railways. He earned a first-class physics degree from Oxford in 1976.

The Web Is Born

Working at CERN in Geneva, he proposed a global hypertext system in 1989 to link the lab's scattered research. By 1991 he had built the browser, server, and the HTTP, HTML, and URL standards that define the web. Crucially, he insisted the technology remain open and royalty-free for everyone.

Guardian of an Open Web

In 1994 he founded the W3C at MIT to steward web standards, and later launched the World Wide Web Foundation and the Solid project. Knighted in 2004 and awarded the Turing Award in 2016, he has spent recent years campaigning for privacy and user control over personal data.

Career Timeline

  1. 1955Born in London to two pioneering computer mathematicians
  2. 1976Graduates Oxford with a first-class physics degree
  3. 1980Writes Enquire program at CERN, an early hypertext tool
  4. 1989Submits proposal that becomes the World Wide Web
  5. 1990Builds first web browser, server, HTTP, HTML and URLs
  6. 1991Announces the World Wide Web to the public internet
  7. 1994Founds the W3C at MIT to set web standards
  8. 2004Knighted and wins inaugural Millennium Technology Prize
  9. 2012Honored at London Olympics: 'This is for everyone'
  10. 2017Receives the ACM Turing Award for inventing the web
  11. 2018Launches Inrupt to commercialize his Solid project

Biggest Hits

1989
Information Management: A ProposalThe blueprint document that launched the World Wide Web
1990
WorldWideWeb (first browser)First web browser and editor, built on a NeXT computer
1991
First website (info.cern.ch)Explained the web project and went live to the internet
1991
HTTP, HTML and URLsCore open standards that still power every web page
1994
World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)Founded to keep web standards open and royalty-free
2016
Solid projectDecentralized web design returning data control to users
Did You Know
  • He deliberately gave the web away for free, refusing to patent it so anyone could use the technology without paying royalties.
  • He typed his 'This is for everyone' message at the 2012 London Olympics on the same model of NeXT computer that hosted the very first website.

Portrait: Web Summit · CC BY 2.0 · via Wikimedia Commons

← All star bios