Robert Cailliau
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Robert Cailliau (last name pronunciation: [kajo], born 26 January 1947) is a Belgian informatics engineer who proposed the first (pre-www) hypertext system for CERN in 1987<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> and collaborated with Tim Berners-Lee on the World Wide Web (jointly winning the ACM Software System Award) from before it got its name. He designed the historical logo of the WWW, organized the first International World Wide Web Conference at CERN in 1994<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and helped transfer Web development from CERN to the global Web consortium in 1995.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> He is listed as co-author of How the Web Was Born by James Gillies, the first book-length account of the origins of the World Wide Web.
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, mechanical and electrical engineering (Dutch: Burgerlijk Werktuigkundig en Elektrotechnisch ingenieur). He also has an MSc from the University of Michigan in Computer, Information and Control Engineering, 1972.<ref name=":0">Template:Cite news</ref>
During his military service in the Belgian Army, he maintained Fortran programs to simulate troop movements.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref name=":0" />
In December 1974 he started working at CERN as a Fellow in the Proton Synchrotron (PS) division, participating in the renovation project of 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.<ref name="w3c1992">Template:Cite web</ref> In 1989, Tim Berners-Lee proposed a hypertext system for access to the many forms of documentation at and related to CERN.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Berners-Lee created the system, calling it World Wide Web, between September and December 1990. During this time, Cailliau and he co-authored a proposal for funding for the activity.<ref name="faq">Template:Cite web</ref> Cailliau later became a key proponent of CERN's web activity, running several student projects to create and support browsers on different operating systems including various UNIX flavours and Classic Mac OS.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> With Nicola Pellow he helped develop the first web browser for the Classic Mac OS operating system called MacWWW.<ref name="faq" /><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
In 1993, in collaboration with the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft Cailliau started the European Commission's first web-based project for information dissemination in Europe (WISE).
As a result of his work with CERN's Legal Service, CERN's director of Future Research Walter Hoogland signed the official document that released the web technology into the public domain on 30 April 1993.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
In December 1993 Cailliau called for the first International WWW Conference which was held at CERN in May 1994.<ref name="faq" /><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The oversubscribed conference brought together 380 web pioneers and was a milestone in the development of the web. The conference led to the forming of the International World Wide Web Conferences Steering Committee which has organized an annual conference since then. Cailliau was founding member of the committee from 1994 until 2002.
In 1995 Cailliau 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 World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), he devoted his time to public communication. He went on retirement from CERN in January 2007.
Cailliau was an active member of Newropeans, a pan-European political movement for which he and Luca Cominassi drafted a proposal concerning the European information society.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
He was a public speaker on the past and future of the World Wide Web and has delivered many keynote speeches at international conferences. He currently has the status of External Collaborator at CERN IdeaSquare.
Awards
- 1995: ACM Software System Award (with Tim Berners-Lee)<ref name=acmaward>Template:Cite web</ref>
- 1999: Christophe Plantin Prize, Antwerp
- 1999: Dr. Hon. Southern Cross University
- 2000: Dr. Hon. University of Ghent
- 2001: Médaille Genève Reconnaissante (with Tim Berners-Lee)<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
- 2004: Commander in the Order of King Leopold (awarded by King Albert II of Belgium)
- 2006: Honorary citizenship of the city of Tongeren
- 2008: Gold Medal of the Flemish Academy of Sciences and the Arts
- 2009: Dr. Hon. University of Liège (with Tim Berners-Lee)
- 2010: Ehrenpreis Best of Swiss Web<ref>bestofswissweb.ch Ehrenpreis 2010 Template:Webarchive</ref>
- 2012: Internet Hall of Fame by the Internet Society<ref>2012 Inductees Template:Webarchive, Internet Hall of Fame website. Last accessed 24 April 2012</ref>
- 2021: Dr. Hon. from the University of Michigan for his co-creation (as cited by the ACM in its 1995 award to Cailliau) of the World-Wide-Web
- 2023: Honorary Member of the Alumni Society of Engineers of Ghent university
See also
Bibliography
- How the Web Was Born (Oxford University Press)
- Publications in DBLP Computer Science Library
References
External links
- First International Conference on the World-Wide Web
- First International Conference on the World-Wide Web announcement
- International World Wide Web Conference Committee
- An interview with Cailliau in 1997
- IdeaSquare