Happy Birthday to the ‘Father of Fiber Optics’

If you went to do a Google search today, you probably noticed there was a Google-doodle for Nov. 4 honoring Charles K. Kao’s (known as the ‘Father of Fiberoptic) birthday. Having started as a fiberoptic network cabling company, Compulink would just like to say, happy birthday to the man who pioneered one of the biggest innovations in technology and information sharing over the last 100 years. 

To celebrate, we have compiled a few facts about Charles’ life and impact on the IT world:

  1. Charles was born in 1933 in Shanghai, China
  2. Charles K. Kao received the Nobel Prize in Physics for his “groundbreaking achievements concerning the transmission of light in fibers for optical communication.”
  3. In 1966, Kao and fellow engineer, George Hockham proposed that fibers made of ultra-pure glass could transmit light for distances of miles without a total loss of signal, and in 1970, the first fiber-optic cable was successfully created.
  4. Kao is nicknamed as the “godfather of broadband” as well as the “father of fiber optics”
  5. Kao was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II for his “services to fiber optics 

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