Google Doodle celebrates 'father of fiber optics' Charles K. Kao

To highlight Kao's contribution to technology, Google will honor the engineer on Thursday with a Doodle celebrating his 88th birthday. The animated Doodle depicts Kao, widely known as "the father of fiber optics," using a green fiber laser to transmit data from one end of the Doodle to the other.

Today’s animated Google Doodle for Charles K. Kao shows the man himself operating a laser, which is aimed at a fiber optic cable. Of course, being a Google Doodle, the cable is cleverly curved to spell out the word “Google.”

Kao would go on to oversee implementation of fiber optic networks worldwide and focus on education in the 1980s, serving as vice chancellor of The Chinese University of Hong Kong and founding Hong Kong's Independent Schools Foundation.

Kao died in 2018 at the age of 84.

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Here’s what you need to know about Kao's Life:

1. Kao Was Born in Shanghai to a Wealthy, Accomplished Family

2. Kao, Who Studied Electrical Engineering in England, Was Considered a ‘Pioneer’

3. Kao Won the Nobel Prize

4. Kao Had Two Children With His Wife, Who Live in California

5. Kao’s Invention ‘Transformed the Way the Human Race Communicated’