Charles Kao was a former member of staff of Queen Mary, having joined Professor Peter Clarricoats' Research Group as a Visiting Research Associate in 1969, in what is now the School of Electronic Engineering and Computer Science. Sir Charles was awarded an Honorary Fellowship of QMUL in 2008 in recognition of his contribution to science.
Kao worked on the rapid transmission of signals using glass fiber filaments, ‘fiber optics’ as we would now refer to them. He was awarded the 2009 Nobel Prize for Physics “for groundbreaking achievements concerning the transmission of light in fibers for optical communication”.
You can learn more about Charles Kao’s achievements on the Nobel Prize website at: https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/physics/2009/kao/facts/.