Hong Kong - A Hong Kong professor "hailed as the father of fibre optics" was on Tuesday awarded the Nobel Prize for physics - and joked that it was his invention which had allowed news of the award to travel so fast. Professor Charles Kuen Kao, 75, a former vice-chancellor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, received the honour for his "groundbreaking achievements concerning the transmission of light in fibres for optical communication."
He was awarded the prize jointly with Americans Willard Boyle and George Smith for their "invention of an imaging semiconductor circuit - the CCD sensor" - the electrical eye of a digital camera.
Speaking following the announcement, Kao said he was absolutely speechless and that he never expected such an honour.
"The Nobel (Prize) has never been given out for applied sciences before. This is very, very unexpected," he said.
"Fibre optics has changed the world of information so much in these last forty years. It certainly is due to the fibre optical networks that the news has travelled so fast."
Kao, a British national who was born in Shanghai, carried out his pioneering work during the 1960s at the research centre for the British telecommunications company Standard Telephones and Cables (STC).
His work demonstrated that light rather than electricity could be used to transmit speech and data accurately at very high speeds.
Today, fibre optics - hair-like threads of glass which transmit data via light - are used in the communications industry the world over. It has been crucial to the development of high-speed broadband internet.
Kao's achievement was applauded by Hong Kong chief executive Donald Tsang, who congratulated him on behalf of Hong Kong people.
"The Nobel Prize in Physics is the highest honour in the field of science," said Tsang. "An outstanding scientist aside, Professor Kao is a true gentleman and a committed educator. We are immensely proud to have such an eminent figure in Hong Kong."
Kao, born in Shanghai in 1933, graduated with a degree in electrical engineering from Woolwich Polytechnic, now the University of Greenwich, in 1957.
He worked first as an engineer for STC before moving to their research centre in Harlow.
He was awarded a PhD degree in electrical engineering by Imperial College London in 1965, carrying out his pioneering work in fibre optics a year later.
His work led to 29 patented discoveries and contributed to the development and commercialization of optical fibre communications that made the technological revolution possible.
Kao later moved to Hong Kong where he founded the department of electronic engineering at the Chinese University of Hong Kong in 1970. He served as the university's vice-chancellor from 1987 to 1996 and is currently an honorary professor.
The Nobel prizes, founded by Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel, were first awarded in 1901.
Previous winners of the physics prize in the past include Pierre and Marie Curie in 1903 for their work on radiation, and Guglielmo Marconi in 1909 for his work in wireless telegraphy.
Laureates receive a gold medal, a diploma and a sum of money. The formal award ceremony takes place in Stockholm and Oslo on December 10.
