- Robert Cailliau
Infobox Person
name = Robert Cailliau
caption = Robert Cailliau. PhotoCERN
birth_date = birth date and age|1947|1|26
birth_place =Tongeren ,Belgium
other_names =
known_for =
occupation =Robert Cailliau (born
26 January 1947 ) is aBelgian computer scientist who, together with Sir Tim Berners-Lee, developed theWorld Wide Web .Biography
Cailliau was born in
Tongeren ,Belgium . In 1958 he moved with his parents toAntwerp . After secondary school he graduated fromGhent University in 1969 as civil engineer in electrical and mechanical engineering (Dutch: "Burgerlijk Werktuigkundig en Elektrotechnisch ingenieur"). He also has anMSc from the ofUniversity of Michigan in Computer, Information and Control Engineering, 1971.During his military service in the Belgian Army he already wrote primitive
Fortran -programmes to simulate troop movements. [ [http://www.knack.be/cmp/11/1421/41902/Het-web-van-Tongeren-article.html#topPage (in Dutch) Knack dossiers : Het web van Tongeren] ]In December 1974 he started working at
CERN as a Fellow in the Proton Synchrotron (PS) division, working on the control system of the accelerator. In April 1987 he left the PS division to become group leader of Office Computing Systems in the Data Handling division. In 1989,Tim Berners-Lee proposed ahypertext system for access to the many forms of documentation at and related to CERN. Berners-Lee created the system, calling itWorld Wide Web , between September to December 1990. During this time, Cailliau and he co-authored a proposal for funding for the project. Cailliau later became a key proponent of the project.In 1993, in collaboration with the
Fraunhofer Gesellschaft Cailliau started theEuropean Commission 's first web-based project for information dissemination in Europe. As a result of his work with CERN's Legal Service, CERN released the web technology into thepublic domain on 30 April 1993.In December 1993 Cailliau called for the first International WWW Conference which was held at CERN in May 1994. The oversubscribed conference brought together 380 web pioneers and was a milestone in the development of the web. The conference led to the forming of the [http://www.iw3c2.org/ International World Wide Web Conference Committee] which has organized an annual conference since then. Cailliau was a member of the committee from 1994 until 2004.
In 1994 Cailliau started the "Web for Schools" project with the
European Commission , introducing the web as a resource for education. After helping to transfer the web development from CERN to theW3C , he devoted his time to public communication. He went on early retirement in January 2005 and left CERN in January 2007.Cailliau declares on his website that he is an atheist.
Awards
*1995: ACM
Software System Award (with Tim Berners-Lee) [http://www.acm.org/announcements/95ssaward.html World-Wide Web Protocol and NCSA Mosaic Developers Honored with ACM Software System Award] ]
*1999: Plantin PrizeAntwerp
*1999: Dr. Hon.Southern Cross University
*2000: Dr. Hon.University of Ghent
*2001: Médaille Genève Reconnaissante (withTim Berners-Lee )
*2004: Commander in the Order of King Leopold (awarded by King Albert II of Belgium)
*2006: Honorary citizenship of the city ofTongeren Works
*"How the Web Was Born: The Story of the World Wide Web", James Gillies, Robert Cailliau (Oxford Paperbacks, 2000) ISBN 0-19-286207-3
Notes
References
* [http://www.cs.brown.edu/memex/ACM_HypertextTestbed/papers/62.html Hypertext in the Web - a History] , ACM 1999
* [http://robert.cailliau.free.fr/ByLetter/M/Me/CV.html Short Curriculum Vitae of Dr. Ir. Robert Cailliau]External links
* [http://www.robertcailliau.eu/ Cailliau's website]
* [http://www94.web.cern.ch/WWW94/ First International Conference on the World-Wide Web]
* [http://1997.webhistory.org/www.lists/www-talk.1993q4/0898.html First International Conference on the World-Wide Web announcement]
* [http://www.iw3c2.org/ International World Wide Web Conference Committee]Persondata
NAME=Cailliau, Robert
ALTERNATIVE NAMES=
SHORT DESCRIPTION=Co-developer ofWorld Wide Web
DATE OF BIRTH=26 January 1947
PLACE OF BIRTH=Tongeren ,Belgium
DATE OF DEATH=
PLACE OF DEATH=
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.