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FROM SCIENCE
TO BUSINESS
Preparing Female Scientists and Engineers for
Successful Transitions into Entrepreneurship
Summar y of a Workshop
Catherine Jay Didion, Rita S. Guenther, and Victoria Gunderson, Rapporteurs
Committee on Women in Science, Engineering, and Medicine
Policy and Global Affairs
NATIONAL ACADEMIES PRESS
Washington, D.C.
www.nap.edu
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THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES PRESS 500 Fifth Street, N.W. Washington, DC 20001
NOTICE: The project that is the subject of this report was approved by the Governing Board of
the National Research Council, whose members are drawn from the councils of the National
Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the Institute of Medicine. The
members of the committee responsible for the report were chosen for their special competences
and with regard for appropriate balance.
This study was supported by the National Academy of Sciences. Any opinions, findings,
conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and do
not necessarily reflect the views of the organizations or agencies that provided support for the
project.
International Standard Book Number-13: 978-0-309-25609-4
International Standard Book Number-10: 0-309-25609-7
Additional copies of this report are available from the National Academies Press, 500 Fifth
Street, N.W., Keck 360, Washington, DC 20001; (800) 624-6242 or (202) 334-3313 Internet,
http://www.nap.edu
Copyright 2012 by the National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.
Printed in the United States of America.
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The National Academy of Sciences is a private, nonprofit, self-perpetuating society of distinguished scholars engaged in
scientific and engineering research, dedicated to the furtherance of science and technology and to their use for the general
welfare. Upon the authority of the charter granted to it by the Congress in 1863, the Academy has a mandate that requires it to
advise the federal government on scientific and technical matters. Dr. Ralph J. Cicerone is president of the National Academy of
fe
Sciences.
The National Academy of Engineering was established in 1964, under the charter of the National Academy of Sciences, as a
parallel organization of outstanding engineers. It is autonomous in its administration and in the selection of its members, sharing
with the National Academy of Sciences the responsibility for advising the federal government. The National Academy of
Engineering also sponsors engineering programs aimed at meeting national needs, encourages education and research, and
recognizes the superior achievements of engineers. Dr. Charles M. Vest is president of the National Academy of Engineering.
The Institute of Medicine was established in 1970 by the National Academy of Sciences to secure the services of eminent
members of appropriate professions in the examination of policy matters pertaining to the health of the public. The Institute acts
under the responsibility given to the National Academy of Sciences by its congressional charter to be an adviser to the federal
government and, upon its own initiative, to identify issues of medical care, research, and education. Dr. Harvey V. Fineberg is
president of the Institute of Medicine.
The National Research Council was organized by the National Academy of Sciences in 1916 to associate the broad community
of science and technology with the Academy’s purposes of furthering knowledge and advising the federal government.
Functioning in accordance with general policies determined by the Academy, the Council has become the principal operating
agency of both the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering in providing services to the
government, the public, and the scientific and engineering communities. The Council is administered jointly by both Academies
and the Institute of Medicine. Dr. Ralph J. Cicerone and Dr. Charles M. Vest are chair and vice chair, respectively, of the
National Research Council.
www.national-academies.org
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COMMITTEE FOR FROM SCIENCE TO BUSINESS:
PREPARING FEMALE SCIENTISTS AND ENGINEERS FOR
SUCESSFUL TRANSITIONS INTO ENTREPRENEURSHIP WORKSHOP
LILIAN WU, Chair, Program Executive, IBM Corporation
ALICE AGOGINO (NAE),* Roscoe and Elizabeth Hughes Professor of Mechanical
Engineering, University of California, Berkeley
ALLAN FISHER, Senior Vice President, Laureate Education, Inc.
SHELDON SCHUSTER, President, Keck Graduate Institute of Applied Life Science
LYDIA VILLA-KOMAROFF, Chief Scientific Officer, Cytonome/ST, LLC
SUSAN WESSLER (NAS),* Distinguished Professor of Genetics, University of California,
Riverside
STAFF
CATHERINE DIDION, Director
RITA S. GUENTHER, Program Officer
WEI JING, Research Associate
*Denotes members of the National Academy of Science (NAS), National Academy of Engineering (NAE), and
Institute of Medicine (IOM).
v
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COMMITTEE ON WOMEN IN SCIENCE, ENGINEERING,
AND MEDICINE
POLICY AND GLOBAL AFFAIRS NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL
RITA R. COLWELL (NAS),* Chair, Distinguished Professor, University of Maryland, College
Park and Bloomberg School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins University
ALICE AGOGINO (NAE),* Roscoe and Elizabeth Hughes Professor of Mechanical
Engineering, University of California, Berkeley
JOAN W. BENNETT (NAS),* Professor of Plant Biology and Pathology, Rutgers University
JEREMY M. BERG (IOM), Associate Senior Vice Chancellor for Science, University of
Pittsburgh
VIVIAN PINN (IOM),* Director for Research on Women’s Health, National Institutes of
Health, Emeritus
PATRICIA TABOADA-SERRANO, Assistant Professor, Department of Chemical and
Biomedical Engineering, Rochester Institute of Technology
LYDIA VILLA-KOMAROFF, Chief Scientific Officer, Cytonome/ST, LLC
SUSAN WESSLER (NAS),* Distinguished Professor of Genetics, University of California,
Riverside
STAFF
CATHERINE DIDION, Director
RITA S. GUENTHER, Program Officer
WEI JING, Research Associate
*Denotes members of the National Academy of Science (NAS), National Academy of Engineering (NAE), and
Institute of Medicine (IOM).
vi
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PREFACE AND ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Scientists, engineers, and medical professionals play a vital role in building the 21st
century science and technology enterprises that will create solutions and jobs critical to solving
the large, complex, and interdisciplinary problems faced by society—problems in energy,
sustainability, the environment, water, food, disease, and healthcare. As a growing percentage of
the scientific and technological workforce, women need to participate fully not just in finding
solutions to technical problems, but also in building the organizations responsible for the job
creation that will bring these solutions to market and to bear on pressing issues. To accomplish
this, it is important that more women in science and engineering become entrepreneurs in order
to start new companies; create business units inside established organizations, mature companies,
and the government; and/or function as social entrepreneurs focused on societal issues.
Entrepreneurship represents a vital source of change in all facets of society, empowering
individuals to seek opportunity where others see insurmountable problems. Technology
entrepreneurship as a style of business leadership involves identifying high-potential,
technology-intensive commercial opportunities, gathering resources such as talent and capital,
and managing rapid growth and significant risks using principled decision-making skills.
There is concern among experts that women are not adequately applying their technical
training to entrepreneurship, certainly not at the same rate as men. We should be aware that in
addition to educating women scientists and engineers in rigorous problem solving, it is equally
important to provide exposure and training to impart the skills that will enable more women to
move from the role of expert to that of leader in dynamic new business enterprises. As one
workshop participant noted, women-owned businesses accounted for 40 percent of all privately-
owned businesses in 2008, contributing $3 trillion to the U.S. economy.1 Women scientists and
engineers are also needed to organize, create, and manage ventures in the not-for-profit world to
effect social change. “Social entrepreneurship” creates ventures that interweave money-
generation with the furtherance of social and environmental goals.
In August 2009, the Committee on Women in Science, Engineering, and Medicine
(CWSEM), convened a workshop entitled, “From Science to Business: Preparing Female
Scientists and Engineers for Successful Transitions into Entrepreneurship” to assess the current
status of women undertaking entrepreneurial activity in technical fields, to better understand the
nature of the barriers they encounter, and to identify what it takes for women scientists and
engineers to succeed as entrepreneurs. The workshop focused on women’s career transitions
from academic science and engineering to entrepreneurship, with a goal of identifying
knowledge gaps in women’s skills as well as experiences crucial to future success in business
and critical for achieving leadership positions in entrepreneurial organizations. More than two-
thirds of workshop participants were from academia, with the remainder from industry, non-
1
Susan Windham Bannister. “Bridging the Gaps: Entrepreneurship, Science, and Gender.” Presented at the
workshop, August 31, 2009.
vii
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profit organizations, independent consulting, and elsewhere. Among the academics, over 60
percent of the participants identified themselves as graduate students or postdoctoral researchers.
This topic is a continuation of an earlier CWSEM workshop titled “From Doctorate to
Dean or Director: Sustaining Women through Critical Transition Points in Science, Engineering,
and Medicine,” which examined critical transition points in both academia and industry, and how
to strengthen women’s participation and advancement during the process. CWSEM serves as a
focal point on gender for the three academies: National Academy of Sciences, National Academy
of Engineering, and Institute of Medicine. This workshop was an impetus for CWSEM to
determine in 2011 that one of its focal points should be on innovation, job creation and the role
of entrepreneurship in developing scientific career pathways.
Over the course of the workshop that began on August 31, 2009, a wide variety of
studies, panels, and reports demonstrated that the problem of preparing women scientists and
engineers for successful transitions into entrepreneurship is multi-faceted. Technical
entrepreneurship is of interest to women—and particularly young researchers—but access to
entrepreneurial training and information resources is often lacking in home institutions.
This summary provides an overview of the individual presentations and panel discussions
at the workshop, in the order in which they were presented. It has been prepared by the
workshop rapporteurs as a factual summary of what occurred at the workshop. The planning
committee’s role was limited to planning and convening the workshop. The statements made in
this summary are those of the rapporteurs or individual workshop participants and do not
necessarily represent the views of all of the workshop participants, the planning committee,
CWSEM, or the National Academies.
This report has been reviewed in draft form by individuals chosen for their diverse
perspectives and technical expertise, in accordance with procedures approved by the National
Academies’ Report Review Committee. The purpose of this independent review is to provide
candid and critical comments that will assist the institution in making its published report as
sound as possible and to ensure that the report meets institutional standards for objectivity,
evidence, and responsiveness to the study charge. The review comments and draft manuscript
remain confidential to protect the integrity of the process.
We wish to thank the following individuals for their review of this report: Joanne
McGrath Cohoon, National Center for Women and Information Technology; Baat Enosh,
University of Colorado; Mary Juhas, Ohio State University; Karla Shepard Rubinger, Rosalind
Franklin Society; and Carolyn Vallas, University of Virginia. Although the reviewers listed
above have provided many constructive comments and suggestions, they were not asked to
endorse the content of the report, nor did they see the final draft before its release.
Responsibility for the final content of this report rests entirely with the rapporteurs and the
institution.
Lilian Wu, Chair
Committee on Science to Business: Preparing Female
Scientists and Engineers for Successful Transitions into
Entrepreneurship
viii
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CONTENTS
1 Entrepreneurial Careers of Women 1
E. J. Reedy, Manager, Research and Policy, Kauffman Foundation 1
2 Panel I: From Bench to Business: Career Paths for Ph.D.s 5
Laurel Smith-Doerr, Associate Professor of Sociology, Boston University 5
Lydia Villa-Komaroff, Chief Scientific Officer, Cytonome/ST, LLC 8
Susan Windham-Bannister, President and CEO, Massachusetts Life Science Center 10
3 Panel II: Aspects of Leadership in Biotechnology Careers 13
Judy Heyboer, Human Resources Consultant, Former Senior Vice President, Genentech, 13
Inc.
Barbara Wallner, President and CEO, Chymic Therapeutics, Inc. 14
Lydia Villa-Komaroff, Chief Scientific Officer, Cytonome/ST, LLC 15
4 Panel III: Education to Prepare for Entrepreneurial Careers 17
Sheldon M. Schuster, President, Keck Graduate Institute of Applied Life Sciences 17
Gail Naughton, Dean, College of Business, San Diego State University and Founder, 18
Advance Tissue Science, Inc.
Michael Teitelbaum, Program Director, Alfred P. Sloan Foundation 19
Jessica Townsend, Assistant Professor, Mechanical Engineering, Olin College 21
5 Studies on Entrepreneurship 23
Caroline Simard, Director of Research and Executive Programs, Anita Borg Institute for 23
Women and Technology
Manwai (Candy) Ku, Researcher, Stanford University 26
6 Panel IV: Alternative Forms of Entrepreneurships in Sustainable Technologies: 29
Intrapreneurship in Corporations and Government, Social Entrepreneurship, and
Traditional Entrepreneurship
Sharon Nunes, Vice President, IBM Green Innovations 29
Maxine L. Savitz, General Manager for Technology Partnerships, Honeywell Inc. (retired) 30
and former Deputy Assistant Secretary for Conservation, U.S. Department of Energy
Judith Giordan, Senior Advisor, National Collegiate Innovators and Inventors Alliance 30
Lucinda Sanders, CEO and Co-founder, National Center for Women & Information 31
Technology
7 Themes from the Workshop and Closing Remarks 33
Appendix A Workshop Agenda 35
ix
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Appendix B Committee on Women in Science, Engineering and Medicine: 39
Member Biographies
Appendix C Speakers Biographies 43
Appendix D Workshop Participants 51
x
