Professor Sir Tim Berners-Lee
Computer scientist Sir Tim Berners-Lee is the inventor of the World Wide Web, the HTTP protocol and HTML markup language for web pages, for which he developed the ideas from 1989 at CERN. He is also CTO of Inrupt.
The history of the creation and further development of the World Wide Web, Sir Tim's central role in it, and his extensive biography can be consulted on the pages of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), which he founded in 1994 and which to this day designs standards for the worldwide web.
Two decades later, an honorary doctorate for Sir Tim is, as it were, an addition to the honorary doctorate that Ghent University awarded in 2000 to alumnus Robert Cailliau, who then worked with Sir Tim Berners-Lee at CERN.
Who can imagine life without the web?
"Would it surprise anyone if the invention of the www, the World Wide Web, was mentioned in the same breath as the invention of the printing press? Sir Tim Berners-Lee has such an achievement on his record. Very few people have been given the opportunity to have such an impact on the lives of so many people, worldwide and over so many generations."
Rector Rik van de Walle is the promotor of this honorary doctorate.
Laudatio for Sir Tim Berners-Lee. Indeed, few can rightfully say that they have had, and continue to have, as much impact on how we live as Sir Tim Berners-Lee. The work where the Rector delivered his laudatio is a brand new work of art created by Plur & Loves especially for Sir Tim Berners-Lee on the Campus Ardoyen. A great first and a great asset for Ghent University as well.
What the web needs next?
Sir Tim Berners-Lee wants a mid-course correction on the web. An absolute necessity, as he himself says, on which he is working together with Ruben Verborgh from Ghent University, among others.
Honorary doctor Sir Tim Berners-Lee:
“Today, only just over half of the world’s population is on the web. That also means that half are not on it yet. We, as web users, have a moral responsibility to give others that same access.”
