In the 1948. His parents decided to move to Hong Kong. Charles continued his education by attending the St. Joseph's College in the 1952. Afterwards, he studied electrical engineering at the Woolwich Polytechnic and reached a Bachelor of Science degree. He studied at the University of London and graduated with a Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering in the 1965. During that time he also worked at the Standard Telecommunication Laboratories in Harlow, England as a an external student.

In the 1970 he comes back to his native land China and started his work at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. He worked at the Department of Electronics and even was the Chair Professor of department. In the 1974 he moved to the United States in Roanoke, Virginia. There, he started work for ITT Corporation.

For several years he reached up from the Chief Scientist to Director of Engineering. He becomes the first ITT Executive Scientist in the 1982 and mainly worked at the Advanced Technology Center, which was located in Connecticut.

In the 1985 he joined the SEL Research Centre and spent a year in Germany. The next year he became the Corporate Director of Research at ITT. For a nine years he also was a president of the Chinese University of Hong Kong, where previously worked in the 70s.

In the 1996 he was retired from University and moved back to the Great Britain, where he spent a half year at the Imperial College in London in the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering. He decided to continue his career and working there from 1997 till 2002 as a Visiting professor. In addition to his main work there he also was a president of The Association of Southeast Asian Institutions of Higher Learning during the years of 1993 - 1994.

He also was involved as an Independent Non-executive Director and member for the Audit Committee of Next Media during 2003-2009. He also is a founder of the Independent Schools Foundation Academy, which appeared in the 2000. By supporting this project he also was in this position of the Chairman until he left on December 2008.

He was awarded with the Nobel Prize in Physics for his contributions to the study of the transmission of light in the 2009. He is a married man. Charles met his wife May-Wan Kao in London, but she is a British Chinese. She was a Fortran programmer. Together they blessed with two children, one son and one daughter, who currently are working in California, United States. His net worth is unknown.