Charles K Kao, Willard S Boyle and George E Smith win the 2009 Nobel Prize in Physics

The Nobel Prize in Physics 2009 was awarded to Charles K. Kao (left), Willard S. Boyle (down) and George E. Smith (right). They contributed to the developent of two scientific works. Half of the $1.4 million prize will be handled by Charles K. Kao for his achievements regarding the long distance transmission of light through optical fibers for communication. The fiber-optic networks are broadband communication lines that help transmitting simultanously video, voice and internet data worldwide in a fraction of second.
The other half prize will be shared by Willard S. Boyle and George E. Smith for the invention of the CCD sensor - an imaging semiconductor circuit. The CCD sensor which turns the input light into electrical signal outputs, represents the starting point of the digital camera era.
The three scientists were called by the Royal Swedish Academy of Science "the masters of light".
Charles K. Kao - (born 1933 in Shanghai, China) - Standard Telecommunication Laboratories UK, Chinese University of Hong Kong China.
Willard S. Boyle - (born 1924 in Amherst, NS, Canada) - Bell Laboratories, NJ, USA.
George E. Smith - (born 1930) - Bell Laboratories, NJ, USA.