Charles Kuen Kao (hiina keeles 高錕; 4. november 1933 Shanghai – 23. september 2018) oli hiina füüsik.

Tal oli Hongkongi, Suurbritannia ja USA kodakondsus.

2009. aastal anti talle pool Nobeli füüsikaauhinda saavutuste eest kiudoptilistes rakendustes.

Nobeli füüsikaauhinna laureaadid
1901–1925	1901 Röntgen 1902 Lorentz, Zeeman 1903 Becquerel, P. Curie, M. Curie 1904 Rayleigh 1905 Lenard 1906 J. Thomson 1907 Michelson 1908 Lippmann 1909 Marconi, Braun 1910 Waals 1911 Wien 1912 Dalén 1913 Kamerlingh Onnes 1914 Laue 1915 W. H. Bragg, W. L. Bragg 1916 1917 Barkla 1918 Planck 1919 Stark 1920 Guillaume 1921 Einstein 1922 N. Bohr 1923 Millikan 1924 M. Siegbahn 1925 Franck, Hertz
1926–1950	1926 Perrin 1927 Compton, C. Wilson 1928 Richardson 1929 Broglie 1930 Raman 1931 1932 Heisenberg 1933 Schrödinger, Dirac 1934 1935 Chadwick 1936 Hess, Anderson 1937 Davisson, G. Thomson 1938 Fermi 1939 Lawrence 1940 1941 1942 1943 Stern 1944 Rabi 1945 Pauli 1946 Bridgman 1947 Appleton 1948 Blackett 1949 Yukawa 1950 Powell
1951–1975	1951 Cockcroft, Walton 1952 Bloch, Purcell 1953 Zernike 1954 Born, Bothe 1955 Lamb, Kusch 1956 Shockley, Bardeen, Brattain 1957 Yang, T. Lee 1958 Tšerenkov, Frank, Tamm 1959 Segrè, Chamberlain 1960 Glaser 1961 Hofstadter, Mößbauer 1962 Landau 1963 Wigner, Goeppert-Mayer, Jensen 1964 Townes, Bassov, Prohhorov 1965 Tomonaga, Schwinger, Feynman 1966 Kastler 1967 Bethe 1968 Alvarez 1969 Gell-Mann 1970 Alfvén, Néel 1971 Gábor 1972 Bardeen, Cooper, Schrieffer 1973 Esaki, Giaever, Josephson 1974 Ryle, Hewish 1975 A. Bohr, Mottelson, Rainwater
1976–2000	1976 Richter, Ding 1977 Anderson, Mott, Vleck 1978 Kapitsa, Penzias, R. Wilson 1979 Glashow, Salam, Weinberg 1980 Cronin, Fitch 1981 Bloembergen, Schawlow, K. Siegbahn 1982 K. G. Wilson 1983 Chandrasekhar, Fowler 1984 Rubbia, Meer 1985 Klitzing 1986 Ruska, Binnig, Rohrer 1987 Bednorz, Müller 1988 Lederman, Schwartz, Jack Steinberger 1989 Ramsey, Dehmelt, Paul 1990 Friedman, Kendall, R.Taylor 1991 Gennes 1992 Charpak 1993 Hulse, J. Taylor 1994 Brockhouse, Shull 1995 Perl, Reines 1996 D. Lee, Osheroff, Richardson 1997 Chu, Cohen-Tannoudji, Phillips 1998 Laughlin, Störmer, Tsui 1999 't Hooft, Veltman 2000 Alfjorov, Kroemer, Kilby
2001–...	2001 Cornell, Ketterle, Wieman 2002 Davis, Koshiba, Giacconi 2003 Abrikossov, Ginzburg, Leggett 2004 Gross, Politzer, Wilczek 2005 Glauber, Hall, Hänsch 2006 Mather, Smoot 2007 Fert, Grünberg 2008 Nambu, Kobayashi, Maskawa 2009 Kao, Boyle, Smith 2010 Geim, Novosjolov 2011 Perlmutter, Riess, Schmidt 2012 Haroche, Wineland 2013 Englert, Higgs 2014 Akasaki, Amano, Nakamura 2015 Kajita, McDonald 2016 Thouless, Haldane, Kosterlitz 2017 Weiss, Barish, Thorne 2018 Ashkin, Mourou, Strickland 2019 Peebles, Mayor, Queloz 2020 Penrose, Genzel, Ghez 2021 Manabe, Hasselmann, Parisi 2022 Aspect, Clauser, Zeilinger 2023 L'Huillier, Krausz, Agostini 2024 Hopfield, Hinton