ABSTRACT
Faculty members and graduate students are learning to assess the commercial as well as the intellectual potential of their research. An increasing number of academic scientists are turning their discoveries into marketable products, broadening their interests from a single-minded concern with publication and peer recognition. Some are going beyond traditional modes of technology transfer, in which the tasks of commercialization were left to others, by participating directly in the creation of entrepreneurial ventures. Academic scientists who are leaders in their field have formed some of these firms. Nobel Prize winner Arthur Kornberg, for example, became intrigued by and increasingly involved in entrepreneurial ventures in biotechnology, much to his bemused surprise.1 As they seek intellectual property from their findings as well as publishable articles and an enhanced scientific reputation, academic scientists become inventors, developers and entrepreneurs.
