Three scientists who paved the way for two technologies that revolutionized network-based modern life -- the Internet and the digital camera -- were honored with this year's Nobel Prize for Physics.
Charles Kuen Kao, a Shanghai-born British-American, is lauded for his work in helping to develop fiber optic cables, the hair-thin threads of glass that carry telephone and net data as light. He will get half of the prize worth 10 million Swedish kronor ($1.47 million) besides a gold medal and a citation.
Willard Boyle, a Canadian-American, and George Smith of the United States will share the other half for inventing the first successful imaging technology using a digital sensor.
Announcing the awards in Stockholm Tuesday, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said Kao was selected for the coveted prize "for groundbreaking achievements concerning the transmission of light in fibers for optical communication."
Boyle and Smith were cited for their invention, made as early as 1969, of the first successful imaging technology using a digital sensor, a CCD (Charge-Coupled Device). The light detectors are based on Albert Einstein's famous photoelectric effect.
"This year's Nobel prize in physics is awarded for two scientific achievements that have helped to shape the foundations of today's networked societies," the Academy said in a statement. They have created many practical innovations for everyday life and provided new tools for scientific exploration, it added.
In 1966, Charles K. Kao made a discovery that led to a breakthrough in fiber optics. He carefully calculated how to transmit light over long distances via optical glass fibers.
These low-loss glass fibers facilitate global broadband communication such as the Internet. Light flows in thin threads of glass, and it carries almost all of the telephony and data traffic in each and every direction. Text, music, images and video can be transferred around the globe in a split second. The telephony system and high-speed broadband Internet would not have been possible without it.
The CCD, invented by Boyle and Smith, is the digital camera's electronic eye. It revolutionized photography, as light could now be captured electronically instead of on film.
Talking to reporters at the Academy's headquarters over a loudspeaker phone from Canada, where he was born in 1924, Boyle said: "We are the ones that I guess started this profusion of little small cameras working all over the world."
"The most important part of our invention that affected me personally was when the Mars probe was on the surface of Mars and used a camera like ours, and it would not have been possible without our invention," Boyle added. "We saw for the first time the surface of Mars. ... It was very exciting."
Boyle retired as Executive Director of Communication Sciences Division, Bell Laboratories, USA, in 1979. Smith was head of VLSI Device Department in the same institution before retiring in 1986.
A Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering, 76-year-old Kao was Director of Engineering at Standard Telecommunication Laboratories, Harlow, Britain. He was also the Vice-Chancellor of Chinese University of Hong Kong.
The award will be distributed at a ceremony slated for December 10, the death anniversary of its founder, Alfred Nobel, who discovered dynamite.
The winner of the chemistry prize will be known Wednesday, to be followed by those for literature, and peace.
The economics prize will be declared next Monday.
For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com
April 24, 2026 15:15 ET Economics news flow was relatively light this week even as the conflict in the Middle East continued, raising concerns for policymakers. In the U.S., spending data, initial jobless claims and pending home sales were the highlights. Business confidence in the biggest euro area economy was in focus in Europe. Inflation data from Japan gained attention in Asia.