Robert Cailliau (last name pronunciation: ajo born 26 January 1947) is a Belgian informatics engineer who proposed the first (pre-www) hypertext system for CERN in 1987 and collaborated with

Tim Berners-Lee Sir Timothy John Berners-Lee (born 8 June 1955), also known as TimBL, is an English computer scientist best known as the inventor of the World Wide Web, the HTML markup language, the URL system, and HTTP. He is a professorial research fellow a ...

on the

World Wide Web The World Wide Web (WWW or simply the Web) is an information system that enables Content (media), content sharing over the Internet through user-friendly ways meant to appeal to users beyond Information technology, IT specialists and hobbyis ...

(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 The European Organization for Nuclear Research, known as CERN (; ; ), is an intergovernmental organization that operates the largest particle physics laboratory in the world. Established in 1954, it is based in Meyrin, western suburb of Gene ...

in 1994 and helped transfer Web development from CERN to the global Web consortium in 1995. 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 Antwerp (; ; ) is a City status in Belgium, city and a Municipalities of Belgium, municipality in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is the capital and largest city of Antwerp Province, and the third-largest city in Belgium by area at , after ...

. After secondary school he graduated from

Ghent University Ghent University (, abbreviated as UGent) is a Public university, public research university located in Ghent, in the East Flanders province of Belgium. Located in Flanders, Ghent University is the second largest Belgian university, consisting o ...

in 1969 as civil, mechanical and electrical engineering (Dutch: Burgerlijk Werktuigkundig en Elektrotechnisch ingenieur). He also has an MSc from the

University of Michigan The University of Michigan (U-M, U of M, or Michigan) is a public university, public research university in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest institution of higher education in the state. The University of Mi ...

in Computer, Information and Control Engineering, 1972. During his military service in the

Belgian Army The Land Component (, ), historically and commonly still referred to as the Belgian Army (, ), is the Land warfare, land branch of the Belgian Armed Forces. The King of the Belgians is the commander in chief. The current chief of staff of the Land ...

, he maintained Fortran programs to simulate troop movements. WWW-LetShare

In December 1974 he started working at

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. In 1989,

proposed a

hypertext Hypertext is E-text, text displayed on a computer display or other electronic devices with references (hyperlinks) to other text that the reader can immediately access. Hypertext documents are interconnected by hyperlinks, which are typic ...

system for access to the many forms of documentation at and related to CERN. Berners-Lee created the system, calling it

, between September and December 1990. During this time, Cailliau and he co-authored a proposal for funding for the activity. 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 Unix (, ; trademarked as UNIX) is a family of multitasking, multi-user computer operating systems that derive from the original AT&T Unix, whose development started in 1969 at the Bell Labs research center by Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, a ...

flavours and

Classic Mac OS Mac OS (originally System Software; retronym: Classic Mac OS) is the series of operating systems developed for the Mac (computer), Macintosh family of personal computers by Apple Computer, Inc. from 1984 to 2001, starting with System 1 and end ...

. With

Nicola Pellow Nicola Pellow is an English mathematician and information scientist who was one of the nineteen members of the ''WWW Project'' at CERN working with Tim Berners-Lee. She joined the project in November 1990, while an undergraduate maths student en ...

he helped develop the first

web browser A web browser, often shortened to browser, is an application for accessing websites. When a user requests a web page from a particular website, the browser retrieves its files from a web server and then displays the page on the user's scr ...

for the

operating system An operating system (OS) is system software that manages computer hardware and software resources, and provides common daemon (computing), services for computer programs. Time-sharing operating systems scheduler (computing), schedule tasks for ...

called MacWWW. In 1993, in collaboration with the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft Cailliau started the

European Commission The European Commission (EC) is the primary Executive (government), executive arm of the European Union (EU). It operates as a cabinet government, with a number of European Commissioner, members of the Commission (directorial system, informall ...

'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 The public domain (PD) consists of all the creative work to which no Exclusive exclusive intellectual property rights apply. Those rights may have expired, been forfeited, expressly Waiver, waived, or may be inapplicable. Because no one holds ...

on 30 April 1993. In December 1993 Cailliau called for the first International WWW Conference which was held at CERN in May 1994. 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

, introducing the web as a resource for education. After helping to transfer the web development from CERN to the

World Wide Web Consortium The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is the main international standards organization for the World Wide Web. Founded in 1994 by Tim Berners-Lee, the consortium is made up of member organizations that maintain full-time staff working together in ...

(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. 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

) *1999: Christophe Plantin Prize,

*1999: Dr. Hon. Southern Cross University *2000: Dr. Hon. University of Ghent *2001: Médaille Genève Reconnaissante (with Tim Berners-Lee) *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 *2012:

Internet Hall of Fame The Internet Hall of Fame is an honorary lifetime achievement award administered by the Internet Society (ISOC) in recognition of individuals who have made significant contributions to the development and advancement of the Internet. Overview ...

by the

Internet Society The Internet Society (ISOC) is an American non-profit advocacy organization founded in 1992 with local chapters around the world. It has offices in Reston, Virginia, United States, and Geneva, Switzerland. Organization The Internet Society ...

2012 Inductees
,

website. Last accessed 24 April 2012 *2021: Dr. Hon. from the

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

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
* ttp://www.iw3c2.org/ International World Wide Web Conference Committeebr>An interview with Cailliau in 1997IdeaSquare

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cailliau, Robert 1947 births Living people People from Tongeren 20th-century Belgian inventors Belgian computer programmers People associated with CERN Web developers Belgian technology writers University of Michigan College of Engineering alumni Ghent University alumni Internet pioneers

Biography

Awards

See also

Bibliography

References

External links