Charles K. Kao

Quick Facts

Full Name: Charles K. Kao
Gender: Male
Profession: Electrical Engineer
Country: China
Height: 5 feet 8 inches (1.73m)
Marital Status: married
Married Date: January 1, 1970
Wife Wong May-wan (Gwen)
Net Worth $600K
Eye Color Dark Brown
Hair Color Black
Birth Place Shanghai
Nationality Chinese
Ethnicity Mixed
Education Shanghai World School, St. Joseph’s College, University of Greenwich, University of London
Father Kao Chun-Hsiang
Mother King Tsing Fong
Siblings (One) Timothy
Kids (Two) Simon, Amanda
Wiki Charles K. Kao Wiki

Charles K. Kao was a physicist and electrical engineer who pioneered the development and use of fiber optics in telecommunications. Charles developed a number of techniques in the 1960s to use glass fibers and lasers together to transfer digital data, which established the foundation for the development of the Internet.

How much was the Net worth of Charles K Kao?

Charles K Kao made a sizable fortune thanks to his diligence and genius. At the time of his passing in 2018, it was believed that his net worth was over $600,000.

Charles K. Kao Biography - Facts, Childhood, Family Life & Achievements
Charles K. Kao’s Net Worth 2022 Via The Famous People

Early Years and Bio

On November 4, 1933, Charles K. Kao was born in Shanghai, China. Charles Kao Kuen is his complete name. His sun sign is the Scorpio. Charles is of mixed heritage and has Chinese nationality. His parents are King Tsing Fong and Kao Chun-Hsiang (Father), according to information about his family (Mother). His father was well-known as a lawyer in Shanghai. Later, he spent time teaching Chinese law and serving as a legal advisor in Hong Kong. Timothy was his younger brother. Two of his older siblings, a sister and a brother, died of the measles before he was born.

Charles K. Kao
Caption: Charles K. Kao’s childhood photo source: QuotesGram.

Education Background

As for Charles K. Kao’s academic background, he started his official schooling at the esteemed Shanghai World School. Kao’s family moved to Taiwan in 1948, then to British Hong Kong, where he attended St. Joseph’s College and earned his degree in 1952. He graduated from the University of Greenwich with a Bachelor of Engineering in electrical engineering. In 1965, he obtained a Ph.D. in electrical engineering from the University of London after continuing his studies.

Death

In 2016, Kao lost the ability to maintain his equilibrium. At the conclusion of his dementia, his wife took care of him because he didn’t want to be kept alive by life support or have CPR done on him. At the Bradbury Hospice in Hong Kong, Kao passed away on September 23, 2018, at the age of 84, from an undetermined cause.

What is the Profession Career of Charles K Kao?

Charles K. Kao began working at Standard Telephones & Cables (STC), a British division of International Telephone & Telegraph Co., not long after receiving his college diploma in 1957. (ITT). In 1960, he submitted an application for a lectureship at Loughborough Polytechnic, but he chose to remain after receiving an employment offer from STC’s research division, Standard Telecommunication Laboratories (STL), in Harlow. Additionally, He succeeded Karbowiak as head of the electro-optics research group in late 1963. By that time, he had realized that contaminants were to blame for light loss in fibers.

Additionally, when Kao’s team added George Alfred Hockham in 1964, they started investigating material properties in addition to optical physics. The first article Kao and Hockham ever filed was titled Dielectric fiber surface waveguides for optical frequencies, and it was presented at a meeting of the Institution of Electrical Engineers in London in 1966. According to this study, ultra-pure glass fibers may be able to transmit light over kilometers-long distances without suffering any signal loss.

Charles K. Kao
Caption: Charles K. Kao winning Nobel Prize source: Alzheimersblog.

In 1970, the first successful fiber-optic cable was built. Charles K. Kao took a two-year leave of absence from STL to help establish the electronics department at the Chinese University of Hong Kong in the same year that he joined the faculty there. The leave was later extended till 1974. A further rise made him the division’s Vice President and Director of Engineering in 1981. The Advanced Technology Center in Shelton, Connecticut, then made him an opportunity to work there in 1983, and he accepted, serving in that capacity there until 1987.

Later Year

After returning to Hong Kong in 1987, Charles K Kao served as vice chancellor of the Chinese University of Hong Kong until 1996. In the meantime, he was appointed as a Non-Executive Director and joined the Audit Committee of Varitronix International Limited in Hong Kong in 1991. From 1993 to 1994, he presided over the Association of Southeast Asian Institutions of Higher Learning. (ASAIHL). He was the CEO of two businesses with Hong Kong offices: Transtech Services Ltd from 1996 to 2001 and ITX Services Ltd from 2000 to 2007.

Awards and Achievements

Among the various honors and prizes the scientist has received, Kao’s 2009 Nobel Prize in Physics for his “groundbreaking results affecting the transport of light in fibers for optical communication” stands out. The IEEE Alexander Graham Bell Medal, the Marconi Prize, and the Faraday Medal are additional noteworthy honors (1985). Additionally, He was named a Knight Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire in 2010. (KBE). In the same year, he also received the Grand Bauhinia Medal (GBM), Hong Kong SAR. He was also selected as a Fellow of The Royal Society and The Royal Academy of Engineering (FAE) (FRS).

How is the Personal Life of Charles K Kao?

In 1959, Charles K. Kao married Wong May-wan (Gwen), another engineer with Standard Telephones & Cables. There is no information known about their first meeting or romantic relationship. They have two children: Amanda, a daughter, was born in 1963, and they had a son named Simon in 1961. To spread awareness of the disease, he and his wife founded the Charles K. Kao Foundation for Alzheimer’s Disease Limited in 2010.

Charles K. Kao
Caption: Charles K. Kao with his wife source: Wikipedia Commons.

Body Stats and Social Media

Undoubtedly, Charles K. Kao was quite gorgeous and handsome. He stood a good 5 feet 8 inches tall and weighed approximately 70 kilograms. Charles additionally possessed black hair and dark brown eyes. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and other social media sites did not see any activity from Charles K. Kao. It appears that he wasn’t active on social media since he was preoccupied with his career.

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