Why is aging scientist Charles Kao in the news?”
Charles Kao: ‘father of fibre optics,’ Nobel winner 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 c
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
