Tim Berners-Lee awarded Order of Merit

Queen awards founder of the Internet

15 June 2007 1:27 GMT / By Stuart Miles

Tim Berners-Lee, the founder of the Internet has been rewarded the Order of Merit, one of the highest honours of the British Empire.

Chosen by the Queen rather than allegedly donating serious amounts of money to a political party, The Queen awards the Order of Merit honour to a select group of people who have made "exceptional contributions" in arts, sciences and Literature.

Only 24 living people share the honour currently with previous honourees being Winston Churchill and Composer Edward Elgar.

Current holders include Margaret Thatcher and playwright Tom Stoppard.

The honour, which caries no title means Tim Berners-Lee will now be able to add the letters "OM" after his name.

Sir Timothy John "Tim" Berners-Lee, KBE, FRS, FREng, FRSA, and now OM was born 8 June 1955. He is the inventor of the World Wide Web, director of the World Wide Web Consortium (which oversees its continued development), and a senior researcher and holder of the 3Com Founders Chair at MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory.