Technology >> CEO Interviews >> January 7, 2002
ROBERT C. ABBE, ADE Corporation President and Chief Executive Officer,
founded the company in 1967 in the basement of his Newton,
Massachusetts, home. His goal was to develop and apply advanced non-
contact metrology to emerging industrial applications. Today, more than
half of Mr. Abbe's 45 patents are used in the design of ADE equipment.
Before founding the Company, Mr. Abbe held positions as Manager of
hybrid modules for Microtec Electronics, Inc., Cambridge, Massachusetts,
and as Project Manager for Lion Research Corporation, Newton,
Massachusetts. At Lion he developed: low pressure wide temperature range
airborne pressure transducers; a basic capacitive sensing system; wide
temperature range and standard electronics for an emissometer-
reflectometer for spacecraft radiative surface characterization, and the
carbon dioxide sensor (mission essential hardware) for the Gemini space
capsule, among others. He received a Bachelor's degree in Physics from
Harvard College and attended the University of Minnesota at Minneapolis
where he also developed laboratory apparatus for advanced
experimentation in the Physical Chemistry Department. Mr. abbe also
studied at the Division of Sponsored Research at MIT, and at the
Division of Engineering and Applied Physics at Harvard. Mr.Abbe has been
involved with a broad range of high-technology projects on a consulting
basis. Such projects include the engineering of miniature night vision
devices; laser rangefinder systems; laser welder for core memory
applications; tempometer for musical tempo determination; and others. He
is a member of the Instrument Society of America; The American
Association for the Advancement of Science; Board of the Cantata
Singers, Inc., a Boston-area group dedicated to the vocal repertoire;
and of the Advisory Board of the Robert Mr. abbe Museum of Indian
Antiquities, located in Bar Harbor, Maine. Mr. abbe lives in Newton,
Massachusetts, with his wife, Elizabeth, and son, Thomas. Profile
of ADE Corporation?
Mr. Abbe: ADE Corporation started out in my basement in 1967, focused on
contactless,
