Explorations in the Business of Science


Spread the love
Science dictates comprehensiveness. It is not enough to simply answer the question; one must exhaust all possible explanations to any phenomena – insofar as experimentation will allow – before expressing a conclusion. In much the same way, it was not enough for me delve within myself to determine what career path to take after graduate school. I wanted to step outside what was familiar to me in academia and explore career options elsewhere. In a lofty sense, academia postures itself to be above the profit-driven, product-driven corporate world and there are those within academia that are particularly zealous in guarding this distinction. Thankfully, Stanford is more progressive in its views of the possible benefits when academia and corporate America collaborate (probably because of its unique location in the heart of Silicon Valley, with Hewlett Packard literally across the street). In this environment, I began to think more about the business of science. Science is expensive, so the simple equation is that discovery costs money. It made sense to have more than a passing understanding of the fiscal drivers of science: particularly biotechnology and health care.