NAE Members Share 2009 Nobel Prize in Physics

October 6, 2009 -- Three members of the National Academy of Engineering were awarded the 2009 Nobel Prize in physics for technologies that enable digital photography. Half of the prize was awarded to Charles K. Kao of Standard Telecommunication Laboratories in Harlow, United Kingdom, and Chinese University of Hong Kong "for groundbreaking achievements concerning the transmission of light in fibers for optical communication." The second half was split between Willard S. Boyle and George E. Smith of Bell Laboratories in Murray Hill, N.J., "for the invention of an imaging semiconductor circuit – the CCD sensor."