15.6.2004
PRESIDENT OF FINLAND PRESENTS FIRST-EVER MILLENNIUM TECHNOLOGY PRIZE TO TIM BERNERS-LEE
The first-ever Millennium Technology Prize was today awarded to Tim Berners-Lee for the invention of the WWW service on the internet. The prize of one million euros and the prize trophy, "The Peak", were presented by the President of The Republic of Finland, Ms. Tarja Halonen, in Finlandia Hall.
”We must remember that the web is a long way from revealing it’s full potential. The extension from human-readable to include also machine-readable information is just one direction of development,” Tim Berners-Lee said in his acceptance speech. Berners-Lee, an Englishman and a graduate of the University of Oxford, is currently working on further development of the web at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He created the WWW, which was first released in 1991, at CERN in Switzerland.
Professor Pekka Tarjanne: Award Selection Committee unanimous
Chairman of the international Award Selection Committee, Professor Pekka Tarjanne, said that the unanimous decision was reached somewhat faster than had been expected, as the WWW satisfied all the award criteria.
"The prize is a biannual award for an outstanding innovation that directly promotes people's quality of life, is based on humane values and encourages sustainable economic development globally. This is just like a definition of the World Wide Web!"
Doctor Jaakko Ihamuotila: Education in technology must be expanded
Chairman of the Board of the Finnish Technology Award Foundation, Dr. Tech. h.c. Jaakko Ihamuotila brought up technology education in Finland. Ihamuotila proposed that technology should be an independent subject throughout basic education.
"Technology should be a subject in its own right to allow every citizen the opportunity to take a stand on different technologies and to encourage talented young people to enrol in technical education", Ihamuotila suggested.
"A broader understanding of technology is not an unreasonable suggestion considering the opportunities that new technologies hold and the global challenges which are common to all of humankind, challenges that only technology can help to resolve in an economic way."
A prize for human-centred technology
The Millennium Technology Award is granted biannually for outstanding innovations in one of the following fields: Energy and the Environment, Information and Communication, New Materials and Processes or Health Care and Life Sciences.
The prize is awarded by The Finnish Technology Award Foundation, an independent fund established in 2002 with funding from both the public and private sectors. Nominations for the 2006 prize will open in January 2005.
Further information:
Chairman of the Board of the Finnish Technology Foundation, Jaakko Ihamuotila +358 50 577 3262
Chairman of the Award Selection Committee, Pekka Tarjanne +358 400 101 222
Representative of the foundation, Ossi Kokkonen +358 50 644 16
Communications Officer of the foundation, Tytti Nahi, +358 41 577 6845, tytti.nahi@technologyawards.org
Photographs and further information: www.technologyawards.org
