Garrett Cole

Employment

• Associate Professor: University of Arizona, Wyant College of Optical Sciences, January 2026
• Managing Director: Thorlabs Crystalline Solutions, 2019-Present
• Co-Founder and CEO/CTO: Crystalline Mirror Solutions GmbH and LLC, 2013-2019
• University Assistant, Faculty of Physics: University of Vienna, 2011-2014
• Marie Curie Fellow: IQOQI Austrian Academy of Sciences, 2008-2011
• Postdoctoral Researcher: LLNL Center for Micro- and Nanotechnologies, 2006-2008

Awards and Honors

• Elected Fellow of the Optica (formerly the Optical Society of America), October 2023
• Selected as a member of the 2024 cohort of the Photonics100 by Europa Science, October 2023
• Inaugural Thorlabs Global Technical Excellence Award, Best Research Effort category, September 15, 2023
• Trust Science Champion, UNESCO International Day of Light, May 16, 2021
• LASER World of Photonics Startup Challenge, 3rd Prize, June 2017
• Winner, SPIE / Photonics Media Prism Award, Materials and Coatings category, February 2017
• European Photonics Start-up Challenge, Second Prize, October 2016
• Berthold Leibinger Innovationspreis, Second Prize, September 2016
• LIGHT2015 Young Photonics Entrepreneur Award, June 2015
• Born Global Champion, Vienna Chamber of Commerce, June 2015
• Vienna Startup Award winner, “Innovative Product and Service” category, June 2015
• Young Enterprise Award, AMA Association for Sensors and Measurements, May 2015
• First Prize in the “Hightech” category of the GEWINN Young Entrepreneur Competition, November 2014
• Finalist, Mercur Innovation Award, Vienna Chamber of Commerce, November 2014
• Finalist, Houska Prize, Austria's largest private research award, April 2014
• Semi-Finalist, SPIE Startup Challenge, Photonics West, February 2014
• Technology Transfer Showcase, CLEO June 2013
• Marie Curie Incoming International Fellowship, March 2009–March 2011
• Lancaster Dissertation Award nominee, June 2006
• National Science Foundation (NSF) IGERT Fellowship Fall 2002–Fall 2004