The inventor of the World Wide Web, Sir Tim Berners-Lee, has taken up a professorship at Oxford University’s computer department, the University announced Thursday morning.
Berners-Lee, who will become a member of Christ Church, graduated from Queen’s College in 1976 with a first in Physics. He created the first successful communication between a Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) client and server in 1989. His work in creating the internet earned him a place in Time magazine’s 100 most important people of the 20th century.
The dean of Christ Church, professor Martyn Percy, said, “We are delighted that Professor Sir Tim Berners-Lee will be joining us. As one of the most significant innovators and scholars of our time, his work with us here in Oxford will continue to consolidate our standing as the world’s top university.
“Christ Church also intends to appoint a new associate professor in computer science to enhance our collaboration with the department, and hopes to offer at least three undergraduate places per year in the subject.”
Head of Computer Science at Oxford, Professor Mike Wooldridge, said, “Few living individuals have changed our world as profoundly as Tim did with his invention of the World Wide Web. We are delighted and honoured to welcome Tim back to Oxford and are tremendously excited about what we will be able to do together in the years to come.”
In his role at Oxford, Berners-Lee will predominantly carry out computer science research. However, it is unclear as to how much time he will spend in Oxford, given that he is also a full-time professor at MIT.
