Charles K. Kao and CUHK: A Comprehensive Archive, from Founding the Electronics Department to a Nobel Laureate President (1970–2018)

One semester in 1970, a 37-year-old engineer who had just completed his foundational research on fibre optics at an industrial laboratory in Britain returned to Hong Kong to establish an electronics department for a university barely seven years old that as yet had no engineering education. Twenty-six years later, he retired from the presidency of that university. Thirteen years after that, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awarded him half of the Nobel Prize in Physics, and listed "The Chinese University of Hong Kong" among his affiliations — the first time a Hong Kong research institution had ever appeared on a Nobel citation. This article brings together the two threads of Charles Kuen Kao (1933–2018) and CUHK in a single archive: his administrative legacy as founding department head and third Vice-Chancellor, and his scientific honours as the "Father of Fibre Optics" and Nobel laureate, along with the University's commemorative apparatus. Both are, in the end, the same man's double foundation of the same university, so they are presented side by side, each informing the other.

Note on methodology: Kao's Nobel Prize places him in the strongest-affiliation tier of the University's distinguished-scholar classification; for an overview of that classification, see nobel-and-awards.md. This article is Kao's dedicated entry, covering his administrative career, scientific work and commemoration in full.

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# 1. Two Moments of Connection: Founding a Department in 1970, Leading the University in 1987

Kao's relationship with CUHK has two starting points, corresponding to "founding a department" and "leading the University":

According to the Hong Kong Laureate Forum profile^※, Kao was born in Shanghai in 1933, received his higher education and doctorate in the UK, and his career spanned both industrial research in the UK and the US (ITT, STL and others) and academia. His groundbreaking 1966 paper on the feasibility of optical fibre communication was in fact completed at a British industrial laboratory before he came to CUHK — in other words, by the time he arrived in 1970 to found the department, he was already an international authority in fibre optics, not a newcomer to the field.

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# 2. Founding the Department (1970): Planting the Seed of "Engineering" at CUHK

According to CUHK's memorial article^※, Kao returned to Hong Kong in 1970 to become the founding Head of the Department of Electronics. This appointment carried profound significance in CUHK's history:

• Until then the University had concentrated on the traditional disciplines of the arts, sciences and business; engineering education was a blank slate;
• The founding of the Department of Electronics planted the first seed for CUHK's later development of engineering and information technology;
• According to the source, Kao also subsequently promoted the growth of information engineering-related fields, laying the departmental foundations on which the Faculty of Engineering was built in the 1990s.

A footnote: Some records state that Kao "founded the Department of Information Engineering in 1989", which is not inconsistent with his founding of the Department of Electronics in 1970 — the former was the further institutional development of CUHK's information engineering direction around the time he took up the presidency, while the latter was his earliest departmental achievement. Both belong to his continuous contribution of building CUHK's engineering and information disciplines "from nothing", and the precise lineage of departments should follow the official university history.

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# 3. Leading the University (1987–1996): Laying the Foundations of the Faculties of Engineering and Education

Kao's nearly nine years as Vice-Chancellor were a period of major expansion in CUHK's academic landscape. According to CUHK's mourning statement^※ and the memorial article^※, the most important institutional legacies of his tenure include:

# Faculty of Engineering (1991)

According to the sources, Kao's foresight led to CUHK's establishment of the Faculty of Engineering in 1991. According to the memorial article^※, the new Faculty brought together two existing departments (Computer Science and Electronic Engineering) and two newly established ones (Information Engineering and Systems Engineering), elevating CUHK's engineering provision from a single department to a full Faculty. This structure was the direct extension of the Department of Electronics Kao had founded two decades earlier.

# Faculty of Education and a Cluster of Research Institutes

According to the same source, Kao's tenure also saw the establishment of the Faculty of Education and the creation of several research institutes, "laying a firm academic infrastructure for CUHK". In other words, what he left the University was not merely the names of a few faculties but a disciplinary infrastructure oriented towards technology and modern society. In the official assessment, Kao's contribution to CUHK "combined the vision of a scientist with the planning of an educator" — he was both the scientist who put light into optical fibres and the builder who laid the disciplinary skeleton of engineering and education at CUHK.

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# 4. Why Did Kao Win the 2009 Nobel Prize in Physics?

The 2009 Nobel Prize in Physics was announced on 6 October^※, shared by three scientists across the total prize of 10 million Swedish kronor: Kao received half, "for groundbreaking achievements concerning the transmission of light in fibers for optical communication"; the other half was shared by American scientists Willard Boyle and George E. Smith for their invention of the charge-coupled device (CCD).

The root of Kao's award lay in a 1966 paper. With his colleague George Hockham, he co-authored "Dielectric-Fibre Surface Waveguides for Optical Frequencies"^※, published in the journal of the Institution of Electrical Engineers, which systematically demonstrated that the dominant cause of light-signal loss in glass fibres was impurities in the glass rather than physical effects such as scattering, and proposed that attenuation could be reduced to below 20 dB/km with ultra-pure fused silica — meeting the threshold for practical long-distance communication. This claim was confirmed in the laboratory during the 1970s; fibre-optic communication was then commercialised, and the first commercial fibre-optic system was completed in 1981^※. Notably, Kao did not patent his core invention; he published his findings openly, accelerating global adoption — a decision posterity has come to regard as his distinctive contribution to "open science".

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# 5. What Role Did CUHK Play in the Nobel Citation?

After stepping down as Vice-Chancellor in 1996, Kao remained institutionally connected to CUHK as Emeritus Professor of Engineering. According to multiple media reports^※, when the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences announced Kao's award in 2009, the institutions listed included Standard Telecommunication Laboratories (UK) and The Chinese University of Hong Kong — the first time a Hong Kong research institution had ever been named on a Nobel laureate's list of affiliations, a landmark moment.

This dual listing reflected the Nobel Committee's recognition of the full arc of Kao's academic career: the 1966 paper had been completed at Standard Telecommunication Laboratories, while his academic home for the following twenty-six years — from his return to Hong Kong in 1970 to found a department, to his presidency from 1987 to 1996 — was CUHK. The University could therefore legitimately claim this Nobel honour for its history, and its claim is far stronger than that of other Nobel laureates connected at the level of "Bo-Wen Professors" or "visiting speakers" (for the classification, see nobel-and-awards.md). In other words, although Kao had left the presidency more than a decade before receiving the Nobel Prize in 2009, and his foundational paper (1966) predated his arrival at CUHK (1970), the University could still rightly count it as its own glory — because he was its third Vice-Chancellor and the founding father of its engineering education, with a deep and genuine connection to CUHK. This places him in the strongest-affiliation tier: President + Founder.

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# 6. The Day of the Ceremony: Why Did Mrs Gwen Kao Deliver the Nobel Lecture?

Kao was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease in 2004^※, and his speech faculties progressively declined after the diagnosis. So when the Nobel Lecture was delivered on 8 December 2009^※ in the Aula Magna auditorium at Stockholm University, it was read on his behalf by his wife, Mrs Gwen Kao, under the title "Sand from centuries past; Send future voices fast" — a title alluding to glass's origin in sand, cheap and yet holding limitless potential for communication.

Meanwhile, CUHK organised a live-broadcast viewing event on campus. According to CUHK Communications Office press release^※, the then Vice-Chancellor, Professor Lawrence Lau, together with Pro-Vice-Chancellor Professor Young Kai-keung, joined some 300 staff, students and members of the public on campus to watch the broadcast. Exhibition panels introduced Kao's achievements, and a congratulatory message board was provided for attendees' well-wishes. In his address, Lau remarked: "It is precisely because of optical fibres that we can share this historic moment with Professor Kao in real time."

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# 7. How Did Kao Give Back to CUHK with 18 Major Awards?

On 5 February 2010, Kao made his first public appearance in Hong Kong after receiving the Nobel Prize in Physics — and it was at CUHK. According to a China Daily Hong Kong edition report^※, more than 200 people attended the ceremony, including the then Chief Executive, Donald Tsang. Though his mobility and speech were already affected by Alzheimer's disease, Kao stood and bowed to the assembled guests.

At the opening of the exhibition titled "The Lore of a Laureate: A Tribute to Charles Kao, Former CUHK Vice-Chancellor and Nobel Laureate", Kao formally made a permanent donation to The Chinese University of Hong Kong of his Nobel Prize in Physics medal and diploma, together with 17 other major awards from throughout his life — 18 items of priceless honour in total. Among them:

According to material from the CUHK University Gallery's exhibition zone^※, the medals and diplomas listed above are now displayed in the exhibition space on the CUHK campus, open to the public.

In her address at the ceremony, Mrs Gwen Kao said: "Charles studied secondary school in Hong Kong, later became the Vice-Chancellor of CUHK, and retired in Hong Kong — CUHK has always been his home." The remark captured the half-century of ties between Kao and both Hong Kong and the University.

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# 8. Which Facilities Has CUHK Named in Memory of Kao?

The physical memorials CUHK has established for Kao were built at various times and together form a three-tier commemorative system spanning "building – statue – exhibition".

# Charles Kuen Kao Building (1996)

According to Wikipedia^※ and map sources, in 1996 CUHK officially named the Science Centre North Block the "Charles Kuen Kao Building" in recognition of his contributions to engineering and science education during his presidency. The naming came right around the end of his term as Vice-Chancellor (July 1996) — the University's formal acknowledgement of more than two decades of institution-building. The Charles Kuen Kao Building remains one of the University's principal teaching buildings for engineering and science, and the name itself serves as a permanent, ever-visible physical memorial.

# Unveiling of the Bronze Statue (September 2010)

According to a CUHK Communications Office press release^※, the University held a statue-unveiling ceremony on 27 September 2010 outside the Ho Sin-Hang Engineering Building. The bronze statue was created by the celebrated mainland Chinese sculptor Professor Wu Weishan (then President of the Chinese Academy of Sculpture), standing 2.2 metres tall and weighing 400 kilogrammes, set against a white gravel surface. Wu Weishan described his aim as letting viewers see not merely a scientist but "a man of compassion and high character". The then Vice-Chancellor, Professor Joseph Sung, said the statue "commemorates Professor Kao's outstanding scientific achievements", and Kao himself and Mrs Gwen Kao attended the unveiling. Alongside it, CUHK presented an extended version of the "Lore of a Laureate" exhibition in the University Library, displaying his donated Nobel medal and archival materials, which ran until 10 October 2010.

# Posthumous Special Exhibition (2018)

Kao passed away peacefully at Bradbury Hospice in Hong Kong on 23 September 2018^※ at the age of 84 (according to Britannica^※, he had received the Prince Philip Medal from the Royal Academy of Engineering in 1996 and was knighted in 2010). According to CUHK Communications Office^※, the University promptly mounted a special memorial exhibition from 28 September to 24 October 2018 in the University Library Exhibition Hall, displaying personal relics including: handwritten lecture notes, his Hong Kong Certificate of Education Examination results, the Grand Bauhinia Medal (GBM, the Hong Kong government's highest honour, 2010) and the Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire (KBE, 2010). The exhibition featured a dedicated condolence area for visitors to sign, and the Faculty of Engineering simultaneously launched a dedicated memorial website, charleskkao-memorial.erg.cuhk.edu.hk, inviting messages and contributions from the community.

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# 9. How Does CUHK Perpetuate Kao's Research Spirit Through Scholarships?

"Commemoration rather than mourning" has been one of CUHK's central postures since Kao's death. According to the CUHK Faculty of Engineering scholarship page^※, the University offers the "Professor Charles K. Kao Research Exchange Scholarship", awarding up to 7 places per year, each worth up to HK$50,000, to support Faculty of Engineering undergraduates in summer research exchanges of at least 8 weeks at overseas universities. Priority is given to physics and engineering students with a GPA of 3.6 or above. Recipients must submit a research report on completion and serve as ambassadors for CUHK — a requirement that reflects Kao's view of research as a public good rather than a private achievement.

In addition, CUHK has established the "Charles K. Kao Scholarship Endowment Fund", created in 2010 through private donations to reward outstanding undergraduates with innovative thinking who engage in scientific research. Managed by CUHK's Office of Institutional Advancement^※, the fund was one of the principal channels by which the public could participate in commemorating Kao through donations during the Nobel year (2009–2010).

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# 10. The Other Side of the Father of Fibre Optics: The Alzheimer's Initiative

Kao's later years were closely bound up with another parallel strand of public service — the Alzheimer's initiative. According to the official website of the Charles K. Kao Foundation^※, Kao and Mrs Gwen Kao jointly founded the "Charles K. Kao Foundation for Alzheimer's Disease" in 2010, with aims including raising public awareness of the disease, promoting research collaboration, and supporting patients and their carers.

The foundation's establishment came almost in tandem with his return to Hong Kong in 2010 for the Nobel commemorative events — that is, in the very year he received humanity's highest scientific honour, he chose to devote his remaining energy to another battle still being fought. For the CUHK community it is also a reminder: Kao's contributions to the University and to Hong Kong extend beyond fibre-optic physics to the openness and public spirit a scientist displayed in the face of illness. His family made clear after his death that, alongside donations to CUHK's "Charles K. Kao Scholarship Endowment Fund", contributions to the "Charles K. Kao Foundation for Alzheimer's Disease" were equally welcome — twin donation channels that are, in themselves, the most concise summary of his dual legacy.

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# 11. How Does Kao's Fibre-Optic Legacy Continue at CUHK?

When Kao arrived at CUHK in 1970 to build the electronics department, fibre-optic communication was still at the laboratory stage; when he retired as Vice-Chancellor in 1996, global fibre networks were already taking shape; and by his death in 2018, the total length of optical fibre underpinning the internet exceeded billions of metres. This trajectory — from a paper to worldwide infrastructure — has left a clear imprint on the Faculty of Engineering's research agenda.

According to a 2024 EurekAlert report^※, CUHK engineering researchers have in recent years continued to produce results in optics and optical signal processing, including research on all-optical signal processors targeting transmission bottlenecks in AI data centres. Kao's core idea of "using light for information transmission" remains an active frontier of CUHK engineering research, not merely a historical honour on display.

From the "Charles Kuen Kao Building" (1996) to the "Kao bronze statue" (2010), the "Charles K. Kao Scholarship Endowment Fund" (2010), the "Professor Charles K. Kao Research Exchange Scholarship", the "2018 posthumous exhibition" and the "Faculty of Engineering memorial website", CUHK has built a complete commemorative system spanning physical architecture, institutional scholarships and an online memory bank.

Kao's significance to CUHK can be summed up in two quotations. The first is his own: "My motto is: after I die, I should leave a mark on the world — like footprints in the sand."^※ The second comes from the Hong Kong Laureate Forum: he is called the "Father of Fibre Optics" and the "Godfather of Broadband" — the former pointing to his scientific contribution, the latter to the coming of the entire internet age. For CUHK, Kao was, in effect, a "double founder": scientifically, he laid the foundations of the global internet; in the University's history, he laid the foundations of its engineering and technology education. This archive combines his administrative achievements and his Nobel honour in a single entry precisely to avoid letting the Nobel glow obscure his institution-building — which, for CUHK, has been no less consequential.

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