Advertisement
Google doodle honours Charles K Kao, Hong Kong’s only Nobel laureate and the father of fibre optics
- Kao laid the groundwork for the development of modern communications with his seminal work on fibre optics in the 1960s
- He is also remembered in Hong Kong as an educator, having served as vice-chancellor of Chinese University for nine years
Reading Time:2 minutes
Why you can trust SCMP
4
Google on Thursday marked what would have been the 88th birthday of the father of fibre optics and Hong Kong’s only Nobel laureate, the late professor Charles Kao Kuen, with an illustration on its homepage depicting the prizewinner in physics alongside his most celebrated contribution.
Advertisement
Born in Shanghai in 1933, Kao came to Hong Kong as a teenager, and went on to lay the groundwork for the development of modern communications with his seminal work on fibre optics. He is also remembered in the city as an educator, having served as vice-chancellor of Chinese University for nine years starting in 1987.
In 2002, Kao was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, and in 2010, he founded the Charles K Kao Foundation for Alzheimer’s Disease along with his wife, Gwen Kao Wong May-wan. After a long battle with the disease, Kao died in September of 2018.
“We’re very happy that Google chose to honour the professor,” said Vincent Chan, the general manager of the foundation, which shared the illustration on its Facebook page.
Advertisement
“His smile was always warm, gentle and comforting, and he was very down to earth as the vice-chancellor, always willing to listen to students,” Chan said. “I hope people can take inspiration from him and face both good times and bad with a smile.”
Advertisement