Prof. Charles Kao

Prof. Charles Kao

Last Friday, I was at the health center of the Chinese University for some tests when a slight man, dressed simply in a short-sleeved shirt and cotton pants, carrying a cloth bag with the logo of Academia Sinica, walked in. It was Prof. Charles Kao, the former Vice-Chancellor of the Chinese University. He stood patiently for his turn to be tested. Most of the students and staff who walked by did not appear to recognize him.

Prof. Kao was the VC when I joined the Chinese University in 1995. I met him informally only once and formally on a couple of occasions. He genial, unassuming personality was a pleasant change from the typical black-suited bureaucrat of the University. He had a reputation as a soft-spoken, amiable administrator who made no attempt to control meetings and gave a patient hearing to everyone.

This blog entry is not because Prof. Kao was our VC. He is a living legend, better known as the "father of fibre optics". In 2000, Asiaweek magazine chose the 6 Asians of the 20th century who by their life and work contributed most to the betterment of Asia in the previous 100 years. The recipients were Politics and Government Deng Xiaoping (China); Business and Economics Sony founder Morita Akio (Japan); Arts, Literature and Culture Film director Kurosawa Akira (Japan); Science and Technology Charles K. Kao (China/U.S.); Moral and Spiritual Leadership Mohandas K. Gandhi (India) [The Asian of the Century was also Gandhi.] Even at that time, Prof. Kao was the only living recipient of this rare honour.

Asiaweek's citation read:

Charles K. Kao. In 1966, Kao, then working in London, laid out the theoretical basis for the practical use of lasers and glass fibers in communications networks. He further established how to make optical fibers, how to connect them to lasers and how to join lengths together. Today optical fibers carry 80% [this was in 2000] of global long-distance telecommunications traffic, bringing the far corners of the world closer together and accelerating the arrival of the networked future.

In the past century, billions of Asians were born. Among them, just six were chosen to be honored, and one of them walks among us, leading a simple life, largely unrecognized for what he has contributed to our lives. (Think of him everytime you log on to the Internet.) Prof. Kao did not make any money from his invention; the patent went to ITT labs where he conducted his research.

For Asiaweek's feature, go to http://www-cgi.cnn.com/ASIANOW/asiaweek/features/

Sorry for not Blogging

This semester, I have "relief from teaching", which means I do not have to teach, although I do go to campus to attend meetings and to administer the MA program of which I am in charge. I have been granted the "relief" to finish a book which I have been working on since 2002.

The book is a sequel to two books I have edited since 1999 (see photo). The subject of both books is English teachers who are nonnative speakers of English. The first, Non-native Educators in English Language Teaching (1999), was the forerunner of the nonnative speaker movement. See http://nnest.asu.edu/ for more of that. The book contained chapters written mainly by teacher-scholars in the USA. All are nonnative speakers of English. The second book, Teaching English to the World (2005), contains chapters written by English teachers from 15 countries. These teachers are also nonnative speakers of English.

The next book, the one I am working on, will be authored by me. I hope to recall the achievements of the nonnative speaker movement and summarize the research that has been conducted on this yopic up to now. I don't have a title yet, but work on about 4 chapters is complete. Although I work at home, I do have distractions such as e-mail and the Internet. On some days, I write 5 pages. On other days, it could only be one paragraph.

I have also been editing my father's autobiography, and updating them on a blog titled "Teddy Braine's Memories." I have to edit the entries carefully as my father's writing is not well organized. In fact, I edit two versions of the entries, one for the blog and the second for a Sunday newspaper in Sri Lanka, which has already published two excerpts. The latest can be read at

http://www.lakbimanews.lk/mag/mag1.htm

Life goes on.

"My Father's Memories" have been moved

The above entries have been moved to http://teddybraine.blogspot.com/