Hong Kong mourns passing of Nobel Prize winner and father of fibre optics, Charles Kao, 84
Physicist had battled Alzheimer’s disease for years and sought to raise public awareness of the illness
Hong Kong on Sunday mourned the passing of the city’s Nobel Prize winner in physics, Professor Charles Kao Kuen, whose seminal work on fibre optics laid the groundwork for the development of modern communications.
He had battled Alzheimer’s for over a decade before death claimed him at 84.
Tributes flowed with chief executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor among the first to offer her public condolences. She hailed Kao as the “pride of Hong Kong” for his tremendous contributions to the city and the world by bringing revolutionary change to modern communications technology.
The Charles K Kao Foundation for Alzheimer’s Disease, founded in 2010 by Kao and his wife, Gwen Kao Wong May-wan, confirmed he died in a local sanatorium at 11.45am on Sunday.
“As one of the last wishes of Professor Kao, our foundation will keep up our work in supporting people with Alzheimer’s disease and their families,” Kao’s widow and chairwoman of the foundation, said in a statement.