The 2009 Nobel Prize for physics has been awarded to Charles Kao for research in fiber optics and to Willard Boyle and George Smith for their activities in the semiconductors field.

Charles K Kao was awarded for his research on the transmission of light in fiber optics, while Boyle and Smith for intenting a semiconductor circuit known as CCD.

Kao is of British and US citizenship, Boyle has Canadian and US citizenship, while George E. Smith is an American.