MIT scientist Tim Berners-Lee, acclaimed as the inventor of the World Wide Web, was named the recipient of the first-ever Millennium Technology Prize.  The award of one million euros (equivalent to US$1.2 million) was bestowed by the Finnish Technology Award Foundation and it recognizes his contributions in creating a new way of sharing information among lab scientists at Switzerland's CERN Laboratory in the early 90's.

The nuclear research center, near Geneva, was the location where Tim created the first ever client browser (a point-and-click application called "WorldWideWeb").  This client incorporated many of the concepts and features incorporated in today's browsers.