Charles Kuen Kao was born on November 4, 1933, in Shanghai, China. His father, Kao Chun-Hsiang, was a lawyer and a professor at Soochow University. Charles was raised in Jinshan alongside his brother. He received his early education at an international school in Shanghai, where he studied English, French, and classical Chinese.
In 1948, his family moved to Hong Kong due to the changing political climate in China. Charles continued his education at St. Joseph’s College, graduating in 1952. He then moved to the United Kingdom to study electrical engineering at Woolwich Polytechnic (now part of the University of Greenwich), where he earned a Bachelor of Science degree.
Kao pursued further studies at the University of London and completed his Ph.D. in electrical engineering in 1965. During this period, he also worked as an external student researcher at Standard Telecommunication Laboratories in Harlow, England. It was here that his groundbreaking research on fiber optics began to take shape.
Charles Kao made revolutionary contributions to the development and application of fiber optics in telecommunications. His work demonstrated that light could be transmitted over long distances through optical fibers, a concept that laid the foundation for modern high-speed internet and global communications. This achievement earned him the title "Father of Fiber Optic Communications."
| Birth Date: | 4 Nov, 1933 |
| Age: | 86 yrs |
| Occupations: | Physicist Engineer Academic Inventor Entrepreneur |
| Birth Place: | Shanghai |
| residence: | Hong Kong Shanghai London Mountain View |
| Education: | University College London University of Greenwich |
| Gender: | Male |
| Description: | Hong Kong-British-American physicist |
| Net Worth 2021: | 5 million |
