Where are my Chinese folks?
Professor Charles K. Kao CBE FRS[2] FREng[3] (Traditional Chinese: 高錕; Kao Kuen; born in 4 November 1933) is an engineer and a pioneer in the use of fiber optics in telecommunications. Kao is widely regarded as the "Father of Fiber Optic Communications"[4][5][6]. He was awarded half of the 2009 Nobel Prize in Physics for "groundbreaking achievements concerning the transmission of light in fibers for optical communication".[7]
Charles K. Kao was born in Shanghai (currently Jinshan District of Shanghai) in 1933. His father was a lawyer. He has a young brother named Kao Woo (高鋙).[citation needed]
Kao graduated from St. Joseph's College in Hong Kong. He then graduated in electrical engineering in 1957 from Woolwich Polytechnic (now University of Greenwich) [8][9] and obtained his PhD degree in electrical engineering in 1965, from Imperial College London[10] (at that time a constituent college of the University of London).
While studying for his PhD degree, Kao also worked as an engineer for Standard Telephones and Cables (STC) at their Standard Telecommunications Laboratories research centre in Harlow, England (now Nortel Networks).
In 1966, along with George Hockham, Kao did his pioneering work in the realisation of fiber optics as a telecommunications medium, by demonstrating that the high-loss of existing fiber optics arose from impurities in the glass, rather than from an underlying problem with the technology itself.[11]
Since leaving STL, he has worked as director of research at ITT Corporation.
He joined the Chinese University of Hong Kong in 1970, and served as the university's Vice-Chancellor from 1987 to 1996.[12]
He then worked as the CEO of Transtech. He is currently Chairman and CEO of ITX Services.
Kao was awarded the Nobel Prize of Physics for his contributions to the study of the transmission of light in fibers for optical communication on October 6, 2009 [13].
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_K._Kao |