May Wan Kao Net worth 2023[ biography and death]

Gwen May-wan Kao is Sir Charles Kuen Kao’s wife. After graduating, they worked together as engineers at Standard Telephones and Cables in London, where they met.

May-wan Kao is a Chinese woman of British descent. She is renowned for being a celebrity spouse and wife of a 2009 Nobel Prize winner in Physics and the founder of fiber optics.

The woman seemed to be a supportive wife as she was always seen alongside her husband at every event.

May Wan Kao’s net worth.

Based on her work and her position as chairwoman of the Charles K. Kao Foundation, we may determine her net worth in millions of dollars. (Approximately $500,000)

She was married to a well-known researcher and expert, Charles K Kao, who left his professional wealth to his wife. Additionally, he has worked as a designer for many companies.

The Kao family is from Jinshan, close to Shanghai, where they own luxurious houses and lands, making the family remarkably rich.

May Wan Kao’s early life

Gwen May-Wan Kao is her real name. She was born into a British Chinese family and had Asian descent. 

In 1959, she got married to Charles K Kao in London. The Kao family is from Shanghai-area Zhangyan township in China’s Jinshan region. The males of each generation would have a high-quality education.

In 1957, she obtained her B.Sc. in electrical engineering.

She received a Bachelor of Science from the University of London. Later, she started working as an engineer for Standard Telephones & Cables (STC) in North Woolwich, London.

She met Charles while working with first-generation computers. He used to work one floor below her apartment. Later, in 1959, they got married. 

Kao’s father-in-law was a lawyer and a 1925 University of Michigan Law School alumnus. 

Her husband earned a Ph.D. in electrical engineering  at the University of London, 

Charles and May-Wan are parents to two grown-up kids who were brought up in California.

Charles Kao had an Alzheimer’s diagnosis in 2002 and he died in Hong Kong on September 23, 2018, at 84.

Presently, May Wan Kao is the chairperson of the Hong Kong-based Charles K. Kao Foundation. The foundation raises awareness of Alzheimer’s disease. It is a non-profit organization that educates individuals on mental healthcare.

May Wan Kao’s personal life

Both of May-Wan Kao’s children live and are employed in Silicon Valley, California.

Kao believes that staying active and helping to run a charity in her husband’s honor have made it easier for her to cope with her loss.

Then she continues to live in the staff housing at Chinese University and gets up at 7 a.m. each weekday to go for a run around the campus.

She admits to loving Korean serial operas and playing tennis twice a week.

Charles K Kao’s net worth and career

 Charles K. Kao’s net worth was estimated to be around $500,000 at the time of his passing.

Charles K. Kao, a Chinese electrical engineer, and physicist also known as the father of fiber optics. He is credited with developing and using fiber optics in communications. 

Charles also developed techniques for transmitting digital data using glass fibers and lasers. It served as the Foundation for advancing the internet. 

With this knowledge, it is possible to meet some of Kao’s specifications.  It comes from his detailed research, to boost fiber optics by several multiples. By the 1970s, fiber optic technology had advanced to the point where it is attributed to paving the way for modern ideas of the World Wide Web.

Today, fiber optics are crucial to every component of our modern communication infrastructures.

On October 6, 2009, Kao received the Nobel Prize in Physics. It was for his contributions to studying light transmission in optical fibers and fiber communication.

For almost ten years, he also worked as this university’s vice-chancellor. In addition to this, he served as the EAC’s chairman from 1990 to 2000.  He has also collaborated with many organizations and committees

Charles K Kao’s death and its cause 

Charles Kao had early-onset Alzheimer’s disease and difficulty speaking. Though he had no trouble identifying people or places. The condition was the same as his father once had.

He moved from Hong Kong to Mountain View, California, in the United States in 2008 to live closer to his children and grandkids.

In 2016, Kao’s ability to keep his balance was lost. At the age of 84, Kao passed away at the Bradbury Hospice in Hong Kong on September 23, 2018.

The chief executive, Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-Ngor, was among the first to publicly express her grief as people mourned Kao’s demise. She praised Kao, referring to him as the “pride of Hong Kong,” for his enormous contributions to the city and the global community.  He brought about a revolution in modern communications technology.

Kao won the Faraday Medal in 1989, and the Alexander Graham Bell Medal in 1985. He also won a combined Nobel Prize in Physics in 2009 for his revolutionary work on transmitting light in fibers 

The Charles K. Kao Foundation

May Wan Kao is the chairwoman of the Foundation. She stated that Professor Kao’s last wish was to develop a non-profit making foundation. The goal was to keep supporting people with Alzheimer’s disease and their families.

Kao also hopes that people show solidarity with their Foundation to support her husband’s wish to benefit people.

The Foundation’s primary initiatives include:

•          Team up with other NGOs to provide free screening, education, and training for anyone suspected of having dementia;
•       Raise awareness of dementia.  The significance of elderly care among the general population including primary and secondary students
• Encourage collaboration across institutions.  This includes universities, government agencies, and non-governmental organizations (NGOs).  To improve education and resource allocation, which will help patients with Alzheimer’s disease. It will also facilitate their families.