On 4 April, CERN alumnus Sir Tim Berners-Lee received the 2016 ACM A.M. Turing Award. The award is given by the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) and it is often referred to as the "Nobel Prize" of computing.
In 1989, while working at CERN, Berners-Lee wrote a proposal for a new information management system for the Laboratory. By the end of the following year he had developed the fundamental protocols and produced the first web server and browser: he had invented the World Wide Web. Considered one of the most influential computing innovations in history, the World Wide Web is the primary tool used by billions of people every day to communicate, access information, engage in commerce and perform many other important activities. On 12 March this year, the web had its 28th anniversary. On this occasion Berners-Lee, who is now a Professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of Oxford, and director of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) and the World Wide Web Foundation, published an open letter on how the web has evolved.
The A.M. Turing Award carries a $1 million prize, with financial support provided by Google, Inc. It was named in honour of Alan M. Turing (1912–1954), a British mathematician and computer scientist. Turing made fundamental advances in computer architecture, algorithms, formalisation of computing and artificial intelligence. He was also a key contributor to the Allied cryptanalysis of the Enigma cipher during World War II.