The Royal Academy of Engineering announced today that Sir Tim Berners-Lee, founder of the World Wide Web Foundation, is one of the recipients of the inaugural Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering, which recognizes “outstanding advances in engineering that have changed the world and benefited humanity.” Berners-Lee shares the award with Vinton Cerf, Robert Khan, Louis Pouzin and Marc Andreesen. All five are being recognised for their major contributions to the development of the Internet and the Web.  

Commenting, Sir Tim Berners-Lee said:

“The prize recognises what has been a roller-coaster ride of wonderful international collaboration. Bob and Vint’s work on building the internet was re-enforced by Louis’ work on datagrams and that enabled me to invent the Web. Marc’s determined and perceptive work built on these platforms a product which became widely deployed across nations and computing platforms. I am honoured to receive this accolade and humbled to share it with them. I want the Web to inspire and empower new generations of engineers—boys and, especially, girls—who will build, in turn, their own platforms, to improve our global society. I hope the message behind this award, along with the work we are doing with the World Wide Web Foundation and W3C, will assist in achieving the vision of a Web that is open, accessible and of value to all.”