Robert Cailliau
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Robert Cailliau (b. 26 January 1947) is one of the co-developers of the World Wide Web.
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[edit] Biography
Cailliau was born in Tongeren, Belgium. In 1958 he moved with his parents to Antwerp. After secondary school he graduated from Ghent University in 1969 as civil engineer in electrical and mechanical engineering (Dutch: Burgerlijk Werktuigkundig en Elektrotechnisch ingenieur). He also has an MSc from the of University of Michigan in Computer, Information and Control Engineering, 1971.
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, he and Tim Berners-Lee independently proposed a hypertext system for access to the CERN documentation. This led to a common proposal in 1990 and then to the World Wide Web.
In 1993, in collaboration with the Fraunhofer Gesellschaft Cailliau started the European 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 the public domain on 30 April 1993.
In December 1993 he called for the first International WWW Conference[1] which was held at CERN in May 1994. That conference has met yearly ever since.
In 1994 he 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 the W3C, he devoted his time to public communication. He is expected to fully retire from CERN in 2007.
[edit] Awards
- 1995: ACM Software System Award (with Tim Berners-Lee)[2]
- 1999: Plantin Prize Antwerp
- 1999: Dr. Hon. Southern Cross University
- 2000: Dr. Hon. University of Ghent
- 2001: Médaille Genève Reconnaissante (with Tim Berners-Lee)
- 2004: Commander in the Order of King Leopold (awarded by King Albert II of Belgium)
[edit] 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
[edit] Trivia
Cailliau is a synesthete. His interests include photography, history, animal watching, travelling and building models.
[edit] References
- ^ International World Wide Web Conference Committee
- ^ World-Wide Web Protocol and NCSA Mosaic Developers Honored with ACM Software System Award
[edit] External links
| Persondata | |
|---|---|
| NAME | Cailliau, Robert |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | |
| SHORT DESCRIPTION | Co-developer of World Wide Web |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 26 January 1947 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Tongeren, Belgium |
| DATE OF DEATH | |
| PLACE OF DEATH | |
