# Alex Cable

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{{Short description|American entrepreneur}}
{{Resume-like|date=December 2025}}
{{Infobox person
| birth_place        = [Chester Borough, New Jersey](/source/Chester_Borough%2C_New_Jersey)
| education          = [County College of Morris](/source/County_College_of_Morris)<br/>[Rutgers University](/source/Rutgers_University)<br/>[Stevens Institute of Technology](/source/Stevens_Institute_of_Technology)
| occupation         = Optical engineer, entrepreneur
}}

'''Alex Cable''' is an American optical engineer, inventor and entrepreneur. He is the founder of optical equipment manufacturer [Thorlabs](/source/Thorlabs).<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.thorlabs.com/PressReleases.cfm|title=Thorlabs - Your Source for Fiber Optics, Laser Diodes, Optical Instrumentation and Polarization Measurement & Control.|website=www.thorlabs.com|access-date=2020-02-04}}</ref>

== Early life and education ==
Cable was born in [Chester Borough, New Jersey](/source/Chester_Borough%2C_New_Jersey), and grew up in nearby [Freehold Township](/source/Freehold_Township%2C_New_Jersey).<ref name=breaks>{{cite news|title=Thorlabs breaks ground in Newton|author=Kathy Stevens|work=The New Jersey Herald|date=October 4, 2010|url=http://classifieds.njherald.com/story/news/Thor-labs|access-date=March 4, 2014|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://archive.today/20150309143347/http://classifieds.njherald.com/story/news/Thor-labs|archive-date=March 9, 2015}}</ref><ref name=focus />  As a child, he enjoyed hiking and camping in [Sussex County](/source/Sussex_County%2C_New_Jersey).<ref name=focus />  Cable dropped out of high school.<ref name=breaks />

Cable's first job was as a dishwasher in a restaurant.<ref name=CATS>{{cite web |title=CATS Industrial Advisory Board |publisher=Center for Automation Technologies and Systems |url=http://www.case2010.org/iab_bio.html |access-date=February 26, 2014 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150227000829/http://www.case2010.org/iab_bio.html |archive-date=February 27, 2015 }}</ref> He later became chef and then restaurant manager with an eye toward fulfilling his entrepreneurial desires by opening his own restaurant.<ref name=appetite /><ref name=CATS />  However, he soon realized that the outlook for a restaurant business did not meet his expectations and left the industry.<ref name=appetite>{{cite news|title=European acquisitions fuel appetite for growth|date=June 18, 2004|work=Optics.org|url=http://optics.org/article/19695|access-date=February 24, 2015|author=Oliver Graydon}}</ref>  He also worked briefly as a machinist, farm manager, and printer.<ref name=CATS /><ref name=catalog>{{cite web|title=Introducing Thorlabs|publisher=Thorlabs catalog|url=http://www.thorlabs.com/images/Catalog/imaging/0_Introduction.pdf|access-date=March 6, 2015|author=Alex Cable}}</ref>

Cable returned to school, attending the [County College of Morris](/source/County_College_of_Morris).<ref name=breaks />  He subsequently earned a Bachelor of Science degree in physics from [Rutgers University](/source/Rutgers_University), and a graduate degree in material science from the [Stevens Institute of Technology](/source/Stevens_Institute_of_Technology).<ref name=CATS />

== Career ==
Out of Rutgers, Cable was recruited by [Steven Chu](/source/Steven_Chu) to work in his lab at [Bell Labs](/source/Bell_Labs) in the spring of 1984.<ref name=Chu />  According to Cable, Chu especially liked Cable's diverse work history.<ref name=catalog />  Cable was official employed as a "technician", but Chu described him as "unofficially...a super-graduate student".  At Bell Labs, Cable became involved in a series of experiments on a low-temperature atom manipulation technique known as "[optical molasses](/source/optical_molasses)". In late 1987, Chu left Bell labs to take a position at [Stanford University](/source/Stanford_University).<ref name=Chu>{{cite journal|journal=Reviews of Modern Physics|title=Nobel Lecture: The manipulation of neutral particles|author=Steven Chu|date=July 1, 1998|volume=709|issue=3|pages=685–706|doi=10.1103/RevModPhys.70.685|bibcode = 1998RvMP...70..685C |doi-access=free}}</ref>  Chu attempted to persuade Cable to join him at Stanford, but Cable declined the offer. Cable instead chose to pursue an entrepreneurial career, having only planned a brief stay at Bell Labs.<ref name=appetite /><ref name=catalog />

Together with a college friend, he built two [scanning tunneling microscope](/source/scanning_tunneling_microscope)s for [DuPont](/source/DuPont) in his bedroom.<ref name=appetite /><ref name=catalog />  The first microscope sold for about $50,000, leaving $20,000 of profit after expenses.<ref name=catalog /> Cable hoped to make a business out of it, entering the emerging market for the newly invented microscope.<ref name=appetite />  Cable's second microscope was less profitable. The business did not appear to be viable due to limited customers and limited [working capital](/source/working_capital), so Cable abandoned the idea.<ref name=catalog />  Instead, he took "a more traditional approach", buying a [milling machine](/source/milling_machine) which he used to design and build [optomechanical](/source/optomechanical) parts.<ref name=appetite />  Selling the parts proved fruitful and also more enjoyable for Cable.<ref name=appetite /><ref name=catalog />  In November 1989, he left Bell Labs to pursue the business full-time, naming it [Thorlabs](/source/Thorlabs)<ref name=appetite /> which he founded in the basement of his [Newton, New Jersey](/source/Newton%2C_New_Jersey) home. The company was named after a Labrador retriever named Thor.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|title=StackPath|url=https://www.laserfocusworld.com/software-accessories/software/article/16547003/future-optics-reaping-the-rewards-of-photonics-in-the-lab-and-in-business-interview-with-alex-cable|website=www.laserfocusworld.com|date=13 June 2016 |access-date=2020-05-28}}</ref> He returned to Sussex County, and has made an effort to keep the business headquartered there due to his love for the area.<ref name=focus />

By 2004, Thorlabs had estimated annual sales of $50 million and was expanding into Europe.<ref name=appetite /> By 2010, sales had reached $125 million annually.<ref name=breaks /> As of 2013, the company produced approximately 20,000 unique products and employed 1,000 people.<ref name=focus /> According to data published by [Gale Business Insights](/source/Gale_Business_Insights), the company had estimated sales of $199.8 million in 2013, the most recent full-year available<ref name=Gale>{{Cite report|date=2015|title=Gale Business Insights|publisher=Gale|id=Document #565502}}</ref> and had 1,500 employees as of 2016.<ref name=":0" />

In 2021, Cable stepped down as president of Thorlabs, announcing his daughter, Jennifer Cable, as the new president.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Strauss |first=Eric |date=2021-06-08 |title=Thorlabs names 2nd-generation president, promotes exec to CTO |url=https://www.roi-nj.com/2021/06/08/tech/thorlabs-names-2nd-generation-president-promotes-exec-to-cto/ |access-date=2025-04-18 |website=ROI-NJ |language=en-US}}</ref> He remains the CEO.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Morel |first=Kyle |title=Thorlabs manufacturing company continues to expand in Newton, names new president |url=https://www.njherald.com/story/news/sussex/2021/06/08/thorlabs-newton-nj-expands-names-new-president/7585305002/ |access-date=2025-05-05 |website=New Jersey Herald |language=en-US}}</ref>

Cable is a founder and director of several photonics companies including KDD FiberLabs of Tokyo, Menlo Systems GmbH, and Stratophase Ltd.<ref name=CATS /> He is also a director of the [Boston Micromachines Corporation](/source/Boston_Micromachines_Corporation). In 2010, Cable founded Idesta Quantum Electronics.<ref>{{cite web|title=Alex Cable profile|publisher=Bloomberg|url=https://www.bloomberg.com/research/stocks/private/person.asp?personId=5965355&privcapId=4380523|access-date=February 26, 2015}}</ref> He sits on the advisory board of the Center for Automation Technologies and Systems at [Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute](/source/Rensselaer_Polytechnic_Institute).<ref name=CATS />

== Academic work ==
While working at Bell Labs, Cable was part of a "lunchtime conversation" that led to a number of experiments which investigated atomic behavior at very low temperatures involving himself, [Arthur Ashkin](/source/Arthur_Ashkin), John Bjorkholm, [Steven Chu](/source/Steven_Chu), and Leo Holberg.<ref name=focus>{{cite news|title=Focus on fitness at the core of Thor Labs|author=Laurie Gordon|work=The Sparta Independent|date=September 30, 2013|url=http://spartaindependent.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130930/NEWS01/130939989/Focus-on-fitness-at-the-core-of-Thor-Labs|access-date=February 23, 2015|archive-date=January 28, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150128133621/http://spartaindependent.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130930/NEWS01/130939989/Focus-on-fitness-at-the-core-of-Thor-Labs|url-status=dead}}</ref> Subsequently, Cable was listed as a co-author on three papers in ''[Physical Review Letters](/source/Physical_Review_Letters)'' starting in 1985 that collectively have been cited more than 3700 times.<ref name=GS>{{cite web|title=Alex Cable citation report|work=Google Scholar|url=https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&q=alex+cable|access-date=February 23, 2015}}</ref> The first of those papers, "Three-dimensional viscous confinement and cooling of atoms by resonance radiation pressure", led to Chu and his Stanford colleagues winning the 1997 [Nobel Prize in Physics](/source/Nobel_Prize_in_Physics).<ref name=PRL />  The paper was selected as one of the journal's greatest milestones by ''Physical Review Letters''{{'}} editors in 2008. The work has led to substantial improvement in the accuracy of [atomic clock](/source/atomic_clock)s and the discovery of the [Bose–Einstein condensate](/source/Bose%E2%80%93Einstein_condensate).<ref name=PRL>{{cite web|title=Letters from the Past – A PRL Retrospective|author=Martin Blume|author2=Stanley Brown|work=Physical Review Letters|date=12 February 2014 |url=https://journals.aps.org/prl/50years/milestones|access-date=February 24, 2015}}</ref>

In 2013, Cable met with several academics to explore the possibility that [breath analysis](/source/breath_analysis) could detect diseases after reading about dogs that were reported to detect cancer in their owners.<ref name=focus />  His [h-index](/source/h-index) is 24, according to [Google Scholar](/source/Google_Scholar).<ref name=GS />

== Personal life ==
Cable is a fitness buff, who participates in endurance sports as a form of stress release. Through Thorlabs, he advocates for personal fitness through community events.<ref name=focus />

== References ==
{{reflist}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Cable, Alex}}
Category:Living people
Category:21st-century American engineers
Category:21st-century American inventors
Category:American businesspeople in manufacturing
Category:American restaurateurs
Category:American chief executives in technology
Category:American technology company founders
Category:Bell Labs
Category:Businesspeople from Monmouth County, New Jersey
Category:Businesspeople from Morris County, New Jersey
Category:Businesspeople from Sussex County, New Jersey
Category:County College of Morris alumni
Category:American optical engineers
Category:People from Chester Borough, New Jersey
Category:People from Freehold Township, New Jersey
Category:People from Newton, New Jersey
Category:Rutgers University alumni
Category:Stevens Institute of Technology alumni
Category:Engineers from New Jersey
Category:Year of birth missing (living people)

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Alex Cable](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alex_Cable) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alex_Cable?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.