Rate My Professor John Cable

John R. Cable, Ph.D., is Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Chemistry at Bowling Green State University. He received his B.S. in 1979 and M.S. in 1980 from the University of California, Riverside, and his Ph.D. from Cornell University in 1986. Joining the BGSU faculty in 1989, Cable has provided longstanding leadership in the department, serving multiple terms as chair. In 2025, he was recognized for 35 years of service at the university's annual Service Awards. As a member of the Center for Photochemical Sciences, he contributes to graduate education in chemistry and photochemical sciences, including roles in program coordination and faculty committees.

Cable's research specialization in physical chemistry investigates the structures of conformationally flexible molecules and the impacts of solvation and hydrogen bonding on these structures. His group employs vibrationally resolved electronic spectroscopy in the ultracold environment of supersonic jet expansions to derive structural information from both ground and excited electronic states through analysis of resolved vibrational structure. Current projects examine phenyl-substituted amines and amides, which form strong hydrogen bonds with partners such as water, acting as both donors and acceptors. High spectral resolution studies of these hydrogen-bonded clusters determine binding modes and characterize resulting structural perturbations. Key publications include 'Vibronic coupling in asymmetric bichromophores: Experimental investigation of diphenylmethane-d5' (Pillsbury et al., J. Chem. Phys., 2014, 141, 064316), 'Electronic spectroscopy of the cis and trans isomers of 1-methyl-2-phenylcyclopropane' (Hamza and Cable, Chem. Phys. Lett., 2012, 527, 16), 'Green photoluminescence from platinum(II) complexes bearing silylacetylide ligands' (Hua, Kinayyigit, Cable, and Castellano, Inorg. Chem., 2005, 44, 471), and 'Spectroscopy of hydrogen-bonded formanilide clusters in a supersonic jet: Solvation of a model trans amide' (Fedorov and Cable, J. Phys. Chem. A, 2000, 104, 4943). His work advances spectroscopic techniques for probing molecular interactions in isolated and solvated states.