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 12 INGENIA INGENIA ISSUE 55 JUNE 2013 13 QUEEN ELIZABETH PRIZE WINNERS WEALTH CREATION 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).