THE inventor of the World Wide Web, who grew up in East Sheen, has scooped a prestigious award which comes with a prize of one million euros (£670,000).

Sir Tim Berners-Lee, was named as the first winner of the Millennium Technology Prize by the Finnish Technology Award Foundation.

Pekka Tarjanne, chairman of the Millennium Technology Prize award committee, said: "The web has significantly enhanced many people's ability to obtain information central to their lives.

"The web is encouraging new types of social networks, supporting transparency and democracy, and opening up novel avenues for information management and business development."

Nearly 80 people from 22 countries were nominated for the prize for their work in health, communication, new materials and the environment.

The biennial Millennium Technology Prize was set up by the Finnish Technology Award Foundation, an independent body which aims to recognise outstanding innovations.

Sir Tim was born in East Sheen in 1955. Though he now lives in Boston, he still has fond memories of his childhood home, nocturnal walks in Richmond Park and attending Sheen Mount Primary School.

He went on to read physics at Oxford and build his own computers.

In 1989 he had the idea of making the internet - the physical network of cables and computers around the globe - accessible to ordinary folk, inventing cyberspace as we know it today.

He also wrote early browser software which gave the web the look we take for granted today. He coined the name World Wide Web and the www prefix for pages.

In 1994 he founded the World Wide Web Consortium, based at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, to maintain standards on the web and work on future developments. He is director of the consortium.