Draper Laboratory

The 1999 Draper Prize

The National Academy of Engineering announced the winners of the 1999 Charles Stark Draper Prize, one of the engineering profession’s highest honors, at its annual meeting in October, 1999. Charles K. Kao, Robert D. Maurer, and John B. MacChesney, developers of fiber optic technology, will share the $500,000 cash award and each receive a gold medallion at a special ceremony at the Department of State in February 2000.

Charles Kao is credited for first publicly proposing the possibility of practical telecommunications using fibers in the 1960s. Through the engineering talents of Robert Maurer, the first low-loss optical fiber was demonstrated in 1970. In 1974, John MacChesney disclosed the Modified Chemical Vapor Deposition (MCVD) process for controllable and mass reproducible manufacture of low loss optical fibers.

Through their efforts, Kao, Maurer, and MacChesney created the basis of modern fiber-optic communications. Their creative application of materials science and engineering and chemical engineering to every aspect of fiber materials composition, characterization, and manufacturing; their understanding of the stringent materials requirements placed on the fiber by the performance needs of the telecommunications system; and above all, their dedication to achieving their vision, were all critical to their success.

The development of optical fiber technology was a watershed event in the global telecommunications and information technology revolution. Many of us today take for granted our ability to communicate on demand, much as earlier generations quickly took for granted the availability of electricity. But this dramatic and rapid revolution would simply not be possible but for the development of silica fiber as a high bandwidth, light-carrying medium for the transport of voice, video, and data. The silica fiber is now as fundamental to communication as the silicon integrated circuit is to computing.

Press Release

Cambridge - Three engineers, Charles K. Kao, Robert D. Maurer, and John B. MacChesney, are recipients of the 1999 Draper Prize for outstanding achievement in engineering that advances human welfare and freedom. These three men were instrumental in the development of fiber-optic technology, a watershed event in the global telecommunications and information technology revolution. The Draper Prize, awarded by the National Academy of Engineering (NAE), will be presented at a dinner in honor of the recipients to be held in Washington next February during National Engineers Week. Kao, Maurer, and MacChesney will share the $500,000 cash prize.

"The NAE is proud to honor these esteemed visionaries for their accomplishments in the development of one of the most revolutionary inventions the world has ever seen," said Wm. A. Wulf, president of the NAE. "Communication as we know it, including the Internet, would not exist without fiber optics. Innovations such as videoconferencing, electronic commerce, and high-quality long-distance telephone service are a direct result of the work of these three engineers."

Fiber-optic technology uses light to carry information through silica fiber material thinner than human hair. Its low manufacturing cost and its ability to transmit vastly more information than copper wire has fueled the explosion in global communications.

"It is fitting that the men who developed the technology enabling the creation of fiber optics are awarded the Draper Prize," Draper Laboratory President and CEO Vincent Vitto said. "Fiber technology has allowed for worldwide information transport and has had a profound effect on the global information infrastructure."

Kao, employed by ITT's Standard Telecommunications Laboratories in the 1960s, theorized about how to use light for communication instead of bulky copper wire and was the first to publicly propose the possibility of a practical application for fiber-optic telecommunication. Maurer led a team of researchers at Corning, Inc., which included co-inventors Donald Keck and Peter Schultz, who designed and produced the first optical fiber in 1970. MacChesney and his colleagues at Bell Laboratories, formerly part of AT&T and now the research and development unit of Lucent Technologies, followed in 1974 with the Modified Chemical Vapor Deposition process, which provided a path to the mass production of optical fiber.

Maurer retired from Corning, Inc. in 1989 and resides in Painted Post, New York. Kao is chairman and chief executive officer of Transtech Services Ltd., Hong Kong. MacChesney is a research fellow at Bell Laboratories, Lucent Technologies, Murray Hill, New Jersey.

The Draper Prize was endowed in 1988 by The Charles Stark Draper Laboratory, Inc., of Cambridge, Massachusetts, in memory of its founder and to increase public understanding of the contributions of engineering and technology to society. The prize is awarded annually. It is among the world's largest engineering awards.

Dr. Charles Stark Draper, known as the "father of inertial navigation", led the effort that brought inertial navigation into operational usage in aircraft, missiles, submarines, and space vehicles. He was head of the MIT Instrumentation Laboratory, which later was renamed in his honor and became an independent, not-for-profit corporation in 1973.

For additional information about the Draper Prize, contact the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) awards administrator, at 202-334-1237 or visit the NAE Web, or contact Kathleen Granchelli, Communications Director, Draper Laboratory, at 617-258-2605.

Charles K. Kao was born in 1933 in Shanghai, China. He received a B.Sc. degree in 1957 and a Ph.D. degree in 1965, both in electrical engineering, from the University of London.

He joined ITT in 1957 as an engineer at Standard Telephones and Cables Ltd., an ITT subsidiary in the United Kingdom. In 1960, he joined Standard Telecommunications Laboratories Ltd., UK, ITT’s central research facility in Europe, and rose through the ranks from a research scientist to a research manager during his 10 years of service. It was during this period that Dr. Kao made his pioneering contributions to the field of optical fiber for communications.

After a four-year leave of absence spent at The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Kao returned to ITT in 1974 when the field of optical fibers was ready for the pre-product phase. He joined the electro-optical products division in Roanoke, Va., as Chief Scientist and later became Director of Engineering. In 1982, in recognition of his outstanding research and management abilities, ITT named him the first ITT Executive Scientist. He was stationed mainly at the Advanced Technology Center in Connecticut, but spent 1985 at SEL Research Center in Germany. Concurrently, he was appointed an Adjunct Professor and Fellow of Trumbull College at Yale University. In 1986, he was named Corporate Director of Research.

Robert D. Maurer was born in 1924 and is a native of Arkadelphia, Ark. He received a B.S. degree in physics in 1948 from the University of Arkansas and a Ph.D. degree, also in physics, from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1951. His education at the university was interrupted by service with the 99th Infantry Division in Europe.

Following a post-graduate year at MIT, Maurer joined the physics department of Corning’s research and development laboratory, progressing from Research Physicist in 1952 through Senior Research Associate and Manager of the Fundamental Physics Department to Research Fellow in 1978. In 1970, Maurer and his colleagues designed and produced the first optical fiber with optical losses low enough for use in telecommunications. Maurer retired from Corning in 1989. He was elected a Member of the National Academy of Engineering in 1979.