Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web and
director of the World Wide Web Consortium, is to be awarded the BCS
Lovelace Medal in recognition of his contribution to the
development of IT.
Berners-Lee built his first computer while studying physics at
Queen’s College Oxford. He went on to work as an independent
consultant, which led to his greatest computing achievement: the
proposed global hypertext project. Now better known as the World
Wide Web, this has changed the way billions of people live and work
since its global launch in 1991.
BCS chief executive David Clarke said, “The World Wide Web is
perhaps the single most important advance in IT’s rapid development
over the past decades. Its impact is far reaching. From the home
user to the multinational company it has changed the way that we
interact with one another and has streamlined business the world
over. For this reason I am proud to honour Tim Berners-Lee’s
outstanding contribution to IT with the Lovelace Medal for
2006.”
The BCS Lovelace Medal was established in 1998 in honour of
Augusta Ada Byron, Countess of Lovelace and daughter of Lord Byron.
She was the assistant and patron of Charles Babbage and wrote
programs for his Analytical Engine, now recognised as the first
computer programs.
Microsoft researcher Andrew Fitzgibbon is to be awarded the
Microsoft-sponsored Roger Needham Award. Fitzgibbon acquired his
PhD in 1997 from the University of Edinburgh for his thesis on
artificial intelligence.
He went on to be appointed a Royal Society university research
fellow in 1999 while working at Oxford, before becoming a
researcher for Microsoft Research Cambridge in 2005.
His contribution to computer vision and machine learning, as
well as papers exploring the analysis and synthesis of images and
image sequences, places Fitzgibbon at the forefront of his field.
Fitzgibbon is one of the few people in the world to have twice
received the Marr Prize – the most prestigious award in his
discipline.
Clarke said, “Andrew Fitzgibbon’s work on camera tracking and 3D
reconstruction has made it possible to integrate computer graphics
into live footage – a process that is used in almost every major
effects film and TV series.”
Andrew Herbert, managing director at Microsoft Research
Cambridge, said, “Having recently recruited Fitzgibbon, we are very
pleased to learn that he has been recognised by the BCS.”