Nobel physics prize winners: Britain's Charles Kao,
Willard Boyle and George Smith. Photograph: Reuters and NAE
Until now, its most notable graduates have been the ex-chairman of a Scottish football club, the manager of the railways pension scheme, and a man who is arguably the most influential Christian singer-songwriter of his generation. But now, Woolwich Polytechnic really has something to boast about: its first Nobel laureate.
Charles Kuen Kao, a Chinese-born Briton, studied at the polytechnic in east London – now part of Greenwich University – before joining a phone company in Essex. Today, he was announced as the winner of this year's Nobel prize for physics, for work that ushered in the age of modern communications.
The vice-chancellor of the institution, the former education minister Lady Blackstone, said the university was "delighted that the great achievement of one of its graduates has been recognised by the Nobel committee. We have always regarded Charles Kao as one of our most distinguished alumni."
Other successful former students include Michael Goy, who runs the railways pension scheme; Campbell Christie, the former chairman of Falkirk FC; and Graham Kendrick, composer of the popular hymn Shine, Jesus, Shine.
Kao, 75, pioneered the art of sending information down pure glass fibres at the speed of light and over distances of thousands of miles. His work in the mid-1960s inspired scientists to share his vision of a world where optic fibres ferried words and pictures seamlessly around the planet and around the clock.
Today, around 1bn km of optic fibre circles the globe, carrying telephone calls and internet traffic from emails and pictures to streaming video.
Kao, a British and US citizen, shares the prize with two researchers at Bell Laboratories, in New Jersey, the American George Smith and a Canadian-American Willard Boyle, who each receive a quarter of the prize for developing "charge-coupled devices" – the electronic eyes used in many digital cameras.
Announcing the prize at the Karolinksa Institute in Stockholm, the Nobel assembly said the researchers' work "helped to shape the foundations of today's networked societies". They share the prize money of 10m Swedish kronor (£900,000).
Kao, who gained a PhD from Imperial College and became vice-chancellor of the Chinese University of Hong Kong, said: "I am absolutely speechless and never expected such an honour.
"The Nobel has never been given out for applied sciences before. This is very, very unexpected. Fibre optics has changed the world of information so much in these last 40 years. It certainly is due to the fibre-optical networks that the news has travelled so fast."
In 1969, Boyle, 85, and Smith, 79, developed digital sensors that ended the dominance of standard photographic film. "It revolutionised photography, as light can be captured electronically instead of on film," the committee said.
Speaking by phone, Boyle told the press in Stockholm: "I have this lovely feeling all over my body, like wow, this is really quite exciting, but is it real? We are the ones who started this profusion of little cameras working all over the world."
Smith, an avid sailor who serves as an adviser to universities and Canadian government laboratories, recently completed a long-term cruise around the globe. "I'm 79 years old right now. And I don't think my life is going to change much. I don't even need a bigger boat," he said. [rc]
© Guardian News and Media Limited 2009
October 7, 2009
UK: Three elderly "masters of light" win 2009 Nobel physics prize
.
LONDON, England / The Guardian / Science / October 6, 2009
Charles Kuen Kao, George Smith and Willard Boyle win Nobel for physics
Briton shares the honour with Americans for laying the foundations of modern communications
By Ian Sample, science correspondent
Nobel physics prize winners: Britain's Charles Kao,
Willard Boyle and George Smith. Photograph: Reuters and NAE
Until now, its most notable graduates have been the ex-chairman of a Scottish football club, the manager of the railways pension scheme, and a man who is arguably the most influential Christian singer-songwriter of his generation. But now, Woolwich Polytechnic really has something to boast about: its first Nobel laureate.
Charles Kuen Kao, a Chinese-born Briton, studied at the polytechnic in east London – now part of Greenwich University – before joining a phone company in Essex. Today, he was announced as the winner of this year's Nobel prize for physics, for work that ushered in the age of modern communications.
The vice-chancellor of the institution, the former education minister Lady Blackstone, said the university was "delighted that the great achievement of one of its graduates has been recognised by the Nobel committee. We have always regarded Charles Kao as one of our most distinguished alumni."
Other successful former students include Michael Goy, who runs the railways pension scheme; Campbell Christie, the former chairman of Falkirk FC; and Graham Kendrick, composer of the popular hymn Shine, Jesus, Shine.
Kao, 75, pioneered the art of sending information down pure glass fibres at the speed of light and over distances of thousands of miles. His work in the mid-1960s inspired scientists to share his vision of a world where optic fibres ferried words and pictures seamlessly around the planet and around the clock.
Today, around 1bn km of optic fibre circles the globe, carrying telephone calls and internet traffic from emails and pictures to streaming video.
Kao, a British and US citizen, shares the prize with two researchers at Bell Laboratories, in New Jersey, the American George Smith and a Canadian-American Willard Boyle, who each receive a quarter of the prize for developing "charge-coupled devices" – the electronic eyes used in many digital cameras.
Announcing the prize at the Karolinksa Institute in Stockholm, the Nobel assembly said the researchers' work "helped to shape the foundations of today's networked societies". They share the prize money of 10m Swedish kronor (£900,000).
Kao, who gained a PhD from Imperial College and became vice-chancellor of the Chinese University of Hong Kong, said: "I am absolutely speechless and never expected such an honour.
"The Nobel has never been given out for applied sciences before. This is very, very unexpected. Fibre optics has changed the world of information so much in these last 40 years. It certainly is due to the fibre-optical networks that the news has travelled so fast."
In 1969, Boyle, 85, and Smith, 79, developed digital sensors that ended the dominance of standard photographic film. "It revolutionised photography, as light can be captured electronically instead of on film," the committee said.
Speaking by phone, Boyle told the press in Stockholm: "I have this lovely feeling all over my body, like wow, this is really quite exciting, but is it real? We are the ones who started this profusion of little cameras working all over the world."
Smith, an avid sailor who serves as an adviser to universities and Canadian government laboratories, recently completed a long-term cruise around the globe. "I'm 79 years old right now. And I don't think my life is going to change much. I don't even need a bigger boat," he said. [rc]
© Guardian News and Media Limited 2009
Nobel physics prize winners: Britain's Charles Kao,
Willard Boyle and George Smith. Photograph: Reuters and NAE
Until now, its most notable graduates have been the ex-chairman of a Scottish football club, the manager of the railways pension scheme, and a man who is arguably the most influential Christian singer-songwriter of his generation. But now, Woolwich Polytechnic really has something to boast about: its first Nobel laureate.
Charles Kuen Kao, a Chinese-born Briton, studied at the polytechnic in east London – now part of Greenwich University – before joining a phone company in Essex. Today, he was announced as the winner of this year's Nobel prize for physics, for work that ushered in the age of modern communications.
The vice-chancellor of the institution, the former education minister Lady Blackstone, said the university was "delighted that the great achievement of one of its graduates has been recognised by the Nobel committee. We have always regarded Charles Kao as one of our most distinguished alumni."
Other successful former students include Michael Goy, who runs the railways pension scheme; Campbell Christie, the former chairman of Falkirk FC; and Graham Kendrick, composer of the popular hymn Shine, Jesus, Shine.
Kao, 75, pioneered the art of sending information down pure glass fibres at the speed of light and over distances of thousands of miles. His work in the mid-1960s inspired scientists to share his vision of a world where optic fibres ferried words and pictures seamlessly around the planet and around the clock.
Today, around 1bn km of optic fibre circles the globe, carrying telephone calls and internet traffic from emails and pictures to streaming video.
Kao, a British and US citizen, shares the prize with two researchers at Bell Laboratories, in New Jersey, the American George Smith and a Canadian-American Willard Boyle, who each receive a quarter of the prize for developing "charge-coupled devices" – the electronic eyes used in many digital cameras.
Announcing the prize at the Karolinksa Institute in Stockholm, the Nobel assembly said the researchers' work "helped to shape the foundations of today's networked societies". They share the prize money of 10m Swedish kronor (£900,000).
Kao, who gained a PhD from Imperial College and became vice-chancellor of the Chinese University of Hong Kong, said: "I am absolutely speechless and never expected such an honour.
"The Nobel has never been given out for applied sciences before. This is very, very unexpected. Fibre optics has changed the world of information so much in these last 40 years. It certainly is due to the fibre-optical networks that the news has travelled so fast."
In 1969, Boyle, 85, and Smith, 79, developed digital sensors that ended the dominance of standard photographic film. "It revolutionised photography, as light can be captured electronically instead of on film," the committee said.
Speaking by phone, Boyle told the press in Stockholm: "I have this lovely feeling all over my body, like wow, this is really quite exciting, but is it real? We are the ones who started this profusion of little cameras working all over the world."
Smith, an avid sailor who serves as an adviser to universities and Canadian government laboratories, recently completed a long-term cruise around the globe. "I'm 79 years old right now. And I don't think my life is going to change much. I don't even need a bigger boat," he said. [rc]
© Guardian News and Media Limited 2009
