Profile
| 1933 | Born in Shanghai, completed secondary education at St. Joseph's College, Hong Kong |
| 1957 | Obtained BSc degree in Electrical Engineering at Woolwich Polytechnic (now the University of London) |
| 1960 | Joined Standard Telecommunication Laboratories of ITT |
| 1965 | Obtained PhD degree in Electrical Engineering at University College London |
| 1966 | Published a paper which proposed using glass fibers as a conductor for optic communication, ushering in the era of optic fiber communication |
| 1970 | Joined CUHK as Reader and chair of the then new Department of Electronics, later appointed as the first Professor of Electronics |
| 1974 | Joined ITT again, first as Chief Scientist and later as Director of Engineering |
| 1985 | Conferred the degree of Doctor of Science, honoris causa, by CUHK |
| 1987 | Became Vice-Chancellor of CUHK |
| 1991 | Led to establish Faculty of Engineering, CUHK |
| 1996 |
Retired in July from vice-chancellorship and appointed as Honorary Professor of Engineering A minor planet (3463) was named after him as ‘Kaokuen’ by the Purple Mountain Observatory of the Chinese Academy of Sciences |
| 2009 | Awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences |