Two Britons and a Pole have been named winners of the Japan Prize for 2002 for their contributions to science and technology research, the Science and Technology Foundation of Japan announced on Thursday.

In the field of system science and technology, Tim Berners-Lee, 46, a senior British researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Laboratory for Computer Science, was selected for inventing the World Wide Web.

Anne McLaren, 74, a British researcher, and Andrzej Tarkowski, 68, a Polish researcher, shared the prize in the field of health care and therapeutic science and technology for their contribution to research into the developmental biology of mammals.

Using experiments on mice, they pioneered technologies for manipulating early embryos.

Mclaren is a principal research associate at the Wellcome Trust Cancer Research Campaign Institute. Tarkowski is director of the Institute of Zoology at Warsaw University.

Their work proved fundamental in contributing to the current progress being made in developmental biology and in basic medical and veterinary sciences.

In awarding Berners-Lee, the youngest ever winner of the award, the foundation said that Web technology developed by him "has made a profound and far-reaching contribution not only to science and technology but also to the advancement of civilization."

The cash prize is 50 million yen in each field. The foundation will hold an awards ceremony at the National Theater of Japan on April 25. The Japan Prize winners are selected from among scientists from all over the world, based on their contributions to the advancement of science and technology.