PROFILE: Charles Kao: "father of fibre optics," Nobel winner

Oct 6, 2009, 12:40 GMT

   Hong Kong - Charles Kao, who was named one of the winners Tuesday of the Nobel Prize in Physics, is known as the 'father of fibre optic communications' for his discovery in the 1960s of the properties of glass fibres, which laid the groundwork for data communications in today's Information Age.

   He realized early that bundles of thin glass fibres could carry huge amounts of digital information over long distances and was cited Tuesday by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences 'for groundbreaking achievements concerning the transmission of light in fibers for optical communication.'

   Kao, 75, made his first attempts at realizing fibre optics as a telecommunications medium more than 40 years ago in London.

   In 1965, he completed his doctorate in electrical engineering at the University of London, and a year later, he and George Hockham, both working at Britain's Standard Telephones and Cables, became the first scientists to promote optical fibres for communication, arguing that the existing deficiencies in fibre optics resulted from impurities in the glass that could be corrected.

   Kao chronicled the properties of glass fibres and calculated how to transmit light over long distances via such fibres

   With the help of Kao's research, the first fibre in which impurities were reduced to a level that made them a practical medium for communication was produced in 1970.

   Communication in today's Information Age, including the internet, would not exist without fibre optics. Traditional copper cables could handle few telephone conversations at a time while today's fibre optic cables can transmit 1.6 billion calls.

   Born in Shanghai in November 1933, Kao was educated in London and has dual US-British citizenship.

   In 1970, he moved to Hong Kong to establish the electronics division of the Chinese University of Hong Kong and worked on the commercial development of optical fibres and systems.

   From 1987 to 1996, he served as university vice chancellor. He also served on a government advisory panel in the then-British colony.

   He continues to live and teach in Hong Kong, which was returned to China in 1997, and works to establish relationships among colleagues at universities in Asian countries, including his homeland of China.

   Kao shared the Nobel with Willard Boyle, who has US and Canadian citizenship, and American George Smith, both of whom developed a sensor known as the 'digital camera's electronic eye.'

   Kao was awarded half the prize worth 10 million kronor (1.4 million dollars) while Boyle and Smith received a quarter each.