Finding Balance: The Professor/Entrepreneur

Abstract

In this article the author discusses finding a balance between academics and entrepreneurship. She argues that the differences between the science of biology and the science of business are vast, adding that for academics who recognize that their discovery or innovation can be commercialized into a product or service that people will pay for can be a simultaneously exciting and confounding situation. She cites issues related to intellectual property ownership, human resources protocols, and time management as examples of the challenges of professorial and business activities and discusses the importance of establishing priorities, figuring out the correct path to take from academics to entrepreneurship, and managing potential conflicts of interest.