5 British scientists to be proud of this British Science Week
British Science Week is in full swing, with people all over the UK celebrating all things… well, scientific! Science has become an integral part of modern culture, with all fields of study being explored in the interest of answering some of the toughest questions humanity has. Everyone in the science community is doing their part, but here are some particularly exceptional individuals to pique your interest!
Tim Berners-Lee
Working at CERN in 1989, Sir Tim Berners-Lee invented an open system of data transfer within a network… just a little something called the World Wide Web. Shortly after that, he developed the world’s first web server and the world’s first internet browser intended for public use. He is now, understandably, a widely-recognised computer scientist with multiple awards, including the Turing Award.
Sir Tim is still hard at work: The World Wide Web turned 30 years old earlier this week and Tim has recently become more vocal about the internet’s current state. As director of W3C and the World Wide Web Foundation, he has a public platform from which to advocate a more free and open internet. blue{shift} wishes Sir Tim the best of luck in his efforts!
Donald Davies
Still rolling with the internet theme; Donald Davies was a Welsh computer scientist that invented the idea of packet switching — the system responsible for transferring messages between different locations in a network. Davies’ original project dates way back to 1966 during his tenure at the National Physical Laboratory (NPL). The Advanced Research Project Agency adopted his research to develop the ARPANET, an early internet prototype. Fast-forward to 2019 and everyone online uses packet switching to share data over vast distances.
Davies went on to become a prolific writer, publishing several books around the area of computer networking, and, for all his important work, received the British Computer Society Award in 1974!
We hope you agree that these are some pretty amazing people! As we mentioned before, there are a lot of inspiring scientists to be proud of, and we’d like to direct you to the full article on our website to see a few more for yourself.
blue{shift} is certainly very proud and grateful of all the important work that our scientists produce for us, and we hope showcasing this small example of inspiring individuals has encouraged you to celebrate British Science Week with us — there are plenty of ways you can get involved this week, and you can find them all on the BSW website!
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