Dr. Alexander Gaeta is the David M. Rickey Professor of Applied Physics and Materials Science and a Professor of Electrical Engineering at Columbia University. He’s also the founding CEO of Xscape Photonics, a startup commercializing his photonics-based chip that will make large-scale computing systems more efficient. He talks about why he gave up his shot at being a professional tennis player to pursue a career in physics; how not getting into his dream college led him to optical engineering; the lessons he learned from his prior startup; and the resources at Columbia he took advantage of while building Xscape, which recently raised $10M.