Agreed, though you'd have to have been living under a rock not to be aware of the huge impact of fiberoptics even a decade ago. Mr Kuo made his discovery in 1996 and retired in 1996. I wish they would try to be a bit more timely with these things; sometimes it feels like 'oops, that guy is really old now - we'd better give him the prize before he passes away'. Oh well - I'm glad to see these advances recognized, since I use both CCDs and fiberoptics on a regular basis.