QUEEN ELIZABETH PRIZE WINNERS WEALTH CREATION

Robert Kahn, Vinton Cerf and Louis Pouzin put the first pieces of the jigsaw in place when they came up with the protocols that allowed computers to talk effectively to one another. Sir Tim Berners-Lee QUEEN ELIZABETH provided the next piece when he devised a standard for sharing information. The final piece of the puzzle fell into place when Marc Andreessen developed a way of presenting that information that PRIZE WINNERS everyone could access In just 20 years, the internet The prize winners each Beyond their roles as ‘fathers of talk effectively to one another. has changed the way in which contributed important building the modern internet’ over the Sir Tim Berners-Lee provided the the world works. And yet the blocks. However, it wasn’t past 30 years, the five engineers next piece when he devised a internet is so commonplace, few just Dr Robert Kahn, Dr Vinton have also served as technical standard for sharing information. people realise that when they Cerf, Louis Pouzin, Sir Tim and political stewards of this The final piece of the puzzle log on they are connecting to Berners-Lee FREng FRS and revolutionary communications fell into place when Marc the largest engineered system Marc Andreessen’s technical system as it has grown from Andreessen developed a way of ever built; a system that is a achievements that stood out. its experimental phase to presenting that information that tribute to the ability of engineers As the judges saw it, these were hosting over 50 billion pages of everyone could access. to collaborate because its equalled by their foresight and information today. Together, the Transmission components are diverse and generosity in sharing their work Control Protocol and internet its hardware spread all over the freely and without restriction. Protocol devised by Kahn, Cerf globe. The judging panel were The approach that these NETWORK and Pouzin, Berners-Lee’s unanimous in deciding that it engineers took, and the open OF NETWORKS HyperText Mark-up language, was a deserving first winner of and universal standards that Robert Kahn, Vinton Cerf and and Andreessen’s Mosaic this global prize which recognises they promulgated, allowed the Louis Pouzin put the first pieces browser led to an information and celebrates outstanding capabilities of internet-based of the jigsaw in place when they revolution that has been as advances in engineering that communications to spread came up with the protocols significant as the industrial and have changed the world. rapidly and to grow organically. that allowed computers to agricultural revolutions.

Chair of the Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering Foundation Lord Browne FREng FRS announces the award winners to the media in March 2013 in the presence of two of the awardees, Dr Robert Kahn and Louis Pouzin

In March 2013, it was announced that the first winners of the Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering were five pioneering individuals whose creativity produced today’s internet communication system. They will come to London on 25 June to receive their awards from HM the Queen at Buckingham Palace. Lord Alec Broers FREng FRS, Chair of Judges of the Queen Elizabeth

Prize for Engineering, tells the story of how the internet innovators Robert Kahn Vinton Cerf Louis Pouzin Marc Andreessen came to win the inaugural award. Photographs of the QEPrize winners taken around the time of their breakthroughs

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While he did not invent hypertext, Berners-Lee did propose its use “to link and access information of various kinds as a web of nodes in which the user can browse at will”

In little more than a generation, reassembled on reaching Back in the UK, Berners-Lee model that is built on top of the a guardian of the web and an standards, globally-accessible of applications unimagined by the internet has grown into a their destination. accumulated experience in internet – that allows us to use evangelist for internet freedom system. Andreessen identified the early network pioneers. The global giant with an estimated Meanwhile, in Europe, computer protocols and text it in the way we do today. The and open data. the importance of a user-friendly browser became the final piece 2.5 billion users, yet its genesis Louis Pouzin was leading a handling before returning to web vastly extended the use of means of searching for the rapidly- in the jigsaw that encouraged resulted from a series of distinctly development team at the French CERN. While he did not invent the internet beyond email and expanding volume of information global society at large to ‘local’ efforts to find ways of Delegation a l’Informatique. The file transfer. ONLINE SEARCHES hypertext, Berners-Lee did The fifth winner of the Queen online, and, along with co-workers access and use the World sharing information by resulting CYCLADES network propose its use “to link and It was Berners-Lee’s vision for Elizabeth Prize for Engineering, at the NCSA, developed Mosaic, Wide Web. Within a few years, connecting computers in different moved the technology a stage access information of various the system’s global accessibility American Marc Andreessen, was an effective and popular browser millions of users were gathering locations as a single network. beyond the ARPANET design kinds as a web of nodes in which that led to a network allowing still a student at the National with integrated graphics that information from the web. The scope of today’s internet by making host computers – the user can browse at will”. any document – text, image, Center for Supercomputing could operate on a variety Andreessen went on to be a could not have been envisaged rather than the network itself In 1989, Berners-Lee video and more – to link to any Applications (NCSA) at the of computers. cofounder of Netscape (later in those early days when – responsible for delivering published a landmark paper, other document. As Director of University of Illinois when Tim The Mosaic browser made sold to AOL) and Opsware (sold pioneers Kahn, Cerf and Pouzin data. CYCLADES, demonstrated ‘Information Management: A the World Wide Web Consortium Berners-Lee was unveiling the the web accessible to everyone to Hewlett Packard). He is now applied their skills, on either side in 1973, used ‘datagrams’ proposal’. He followed this up since 1994, Berners-Lee remains World Wide Web as an open- and triggered a huge number partner in a major Silicon Valley of the Atlantic, in developing containing all the information by creating the first web server the fundamental protocols required to route them between Sir Tim Berners-Lee FREng FRS and browser and writing the that enabled internetworking two machines. This delivered first web pages, which PRIZE BACKGROUND to function effectively. Their the distinct addressing that The Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering (QEPrize) was launched Protocol (IP). TCP/IP remains summarised the project. He did work laid the foundations for made it possible to reassemble in November 2011 with a mission to identify, reward and celebrate the conduit for interconnected this without filing for patents or a ‘network of networks’, as the data that might travel over an engineer, or engineers, responsible for an outstanding advance networks on the internet and requiring royalties. internet has been dubbed, different routes between in engineering, that has proved of global benefit to humanity. World Wide Web. By 1991, the first website which has effectively shrunk the different machines. went online at CERN with the Awarded every other year, the winner (or winners) of the £1 million world by connecting billions While each development web address Info.cern.ch. prize, can be of any nationality of computer users. The trio helped to accelerate packet- CREATING THE WEB Berners-Lee’s breakthrough was The QEPrize is the result of a growing realisation in the worlds of were responsible for laying switching (grouping all When Tim (now Sir Tim) Berners- to link hypertext to the internet. business, engineering and policy of the need for a pioneering initiative down the design and protocols transmitted data into suitably Lee began to develop what He then went on to develop based in the UK to focus attention on engineering worldwide. that together make up the sized blocks, called packets) and became the World Wide Web, he three technologies, a URL The QEPrize is funded by corporate donors. The prize funds fundamental architecture at the to develop more robust and was a young computer scientist (Universal Resource Locator) to are managed by the trustees of the QEPrize Foundation, an independent charitable company supported by the Royal Academy heart of the internet. reliable networks, Kahn and Cerf not long out of university. After reference web resources; HTTP of Engineering, chaired by Lord Browne of Madingley FREng FRS. Kahn and Cerf were still made the breakthrough that has a spell designing software for (HyperText Transfer Protocol), the The Royal Academy of Engineering delivers the prize on behalf of in the early stages of their allowed the internet to continue typesetting, Sir Tim worked as basis of data communication for the foundation. computer science careers growing to its huge size and a contractor at the European the Web; and HTML (HyperText The QEPrize aims to raise the international public profile of when they worked at the US scope today. Their concept was Organization for Nuclear Markup Language), the main engineering and inspire new generations of engineers, particularly Defense Advanced Research to hide the differences between Research (CERN) in Switzerland. language used to create web women, to take up the challenges of the future. It sets out to Projects Agency (DARPA). In individual network device He was looking for a way for pages and make information achieve this by celebrating stories of engineering success, and 1972, Kahn demonstrated the languages – or protocols – colleagues to share research accessible via a web browser. telling the stories of the individuals involved. agency’s network, ARPANET, behind a common protocol. In documents. In 1980, he came These crucial developments The vision for the QEPrize is ‘Create the Future’ and the ambition by linking 20 computers and 1974, they published a landmark up with a system based on made it easier to access of the prize is to make engineering “the number one career choice sending between them a series paper describing Transmission ‘hypertext’. He demonstrated web information. The QEPrize launched a Create the Trophy competition for young people for all young people”. Public engagement activities designed aged 16 to 24, with the fi nalists’ designs prototyped using 3D printing. of messages comprised of Control Protocol (TCP), the most this by building a prototype, In essence, Berners-Lee to realise this ambition are already in place and will be further The winner was Jennifer Leggett, whose tree-like trophy design symbolises ‘packets’ of information that, basic functions of which had, ENQUIRE, which went on to be had devised the World Wide the growth of engineering and represents the way in which all areas of developed over the next few years. engineering are interlinked thanks to their protocol, were by 1978, formed the internet the basis of the World Wide Web Web – an information-sharing

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Unlike many other notable prizes, ‘breakthroughs’ in engineering aren’t just a case of a ‘eureka’ moment. You then have to make your contribution practicable and useful

venture capital company as child of the internet. A third of the internet and web as a in engineering aren’t just a case well as serving on the boards of the people in the world today coherent system and brought of a ‘eureka’ moment. You then several computing companies, use the internet and these five them into public use. Cerf, when have to make your contribution including Hewlett Packard, prize-winners continue to be responding to the news that he practicable and useful. This often Facebook and eBay. its active guardians. And yet was sharing the prize, exclaimed: takes as much creativity as the for all of this impact, and their “The geeks are winning”. original research and requires a continuing involvement in the Professor Reinhard Hüttl, combination of different skills. ENGINEERING internet, the Prize is the first President of the German Engineering is, by its very nature, RECOGNITION recognition of their combined Academy of Science and a collaborative activity and the The development of the engineering achievements. Engineering and Scientific emergence of the internet and internet has been so rapid that These five visionary engineers, Director of the German Research the web involved many teams it is no exaggeration to say that never before honoured Centre for Geosciences, who of people all over the world. anyone born today, or in the together as a group, led the was one of the jury members, Kahn, Cerf, Pouzin, Berners-Lee past two decades, is really a key developments that shaped described the impact of the and Andreessen all laid bricks in five engineers’ work on science, the foundations of what quickly using the example of earth became one of engineering’s The first panel goes onto the renovated Angel Building in Islington, north London. The unitised panels installed were prefabricated complete with glazing, PEOPLE BEHIND THE PRIZE science, which, he said is no most significant developments insulation and finishes. Fixing brackets were installed to the slab perimeter in preparation for receiving the unitised panels © Allford Hall Monaghan Morris An eminent panel of judges from across the world selected the longer imaginable without the of modern times, an innovation winners of the prize. The panel worked from information in World Wide Web: “Modern early that has spread more rapidly the nominations, comments from referees and via a process of warning systems such as the than any previous technological due diligence to establish which nomination most fully met the Tsunami Early Warning System achievement. prize criteria. are based on an extremely fast The judging panel for the inaugural award comprised: data processing and, in particular, More information is at Professor Frances Arnold, Professor of Chemical Engineering; GREEN FACELIFT FOR data transfer.” He went on to say, http://qeprize.org Lord Alec Broers FREng FRS (Chair), Past President of the Royal “But also the rapid development Academy of Engineering; Professor Brian Cox OBE, Royal Society in modern geosciences is Research Fellow, University of Manchester; Madam Deng Nan, based … on the fact that huge Chief Executive Secretary of China Association for Science and data amounts are, nowadays, Technology; Professor Lynn Gladden CBE FREng FRS, Pro Vice available globally and within a Chancellor for Research at University of Cambridge; Diane BIOGRAPHY CONCRETE BUILDINGS minimum of time for the science Greene, Director of Google, USA; Professor John Hennessy, community worldwide.” Lord Alec Broers FREng FRS is Attempts to reduce the UK’s carbon footprint will have to tackle President, Stanford University, USA; Professor Dr Dr h.c. Reinhard Berners-Lee set out to deal a specialist in nanotechnology Hüttl, President of acatech, Germany; Professor Calestous Juma with just this sort of scientific and microelectronics who the energy used in existing buildings, including many thousands of HonFREng, Director of the Science, Technology and challenge when he launched worked for IBM in the US for concrete-framed buildings put up between the 1960s and the 1980s. Globalisation Project, Harvard University, USA; Professor Hiroshi his work on the presentation 19 years before returning Komiyama, President of Engineering Academy, Japan; Dr Dan of scientific data at CERN. Two to Cambridge University These buildings are often inefficient to heat and cool, uncomfortable Mote, President-nominee, US National Academy of Engineering; decades on, the five winners of where he became Head of to occupy and expensive to refurbish. New ways of cladding them Narayana Murthy, Founder, Infosys, India; Dr Nathan Myhrvold, the prize have every right to be the Engineering Department, Formerly Chief Technology Officer at Microsoft, USA; Professor as amazed as anyone by how Master of Churchill College could transform them into energy-efficient, low carbon buildings Choon Fong Shih, President, King Abdullah University of Science the internet has changed the and Vice Chancellor. He at a fraction of the cost of rebuilding. Professor Doug King FREng, and Technology, Saudi Arabia and Paul Westbury FREng, CEO way we live. was President of the Royal Buro Happold. The award to the winners of Academy of Engineering Chief Scientific and Engineering Advisor to the Building Research The QEPrize is funded by a charitable trust supported by the first Queen Elizabeth Prize and chairs the boards of the Establishment, explains some of the benefits of recladding. BAE Systems, BG Group, BP, GSK, Jaguar Land Rover, National for Engineering says a lot about Diamond Light Source, Bio- Grid, Shell UK Ltd, Siemens UK, Sony, Tata Consultancy Services, engineering. Unlike many other Nano Consulting and the TSB’s Tata Steel Europe and Toshiba. notable prizes, ‘breakthroughs’ KTN for Transport.

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