Abstract

"From Lab Rats to Entrepreneurs: Science, Philanthropy, and the Entrepreneurial University, 1980-2024"

Eric John Abrahamson, Vantage Point History / Johns Hopkins University (eric@vantagepointhistory.com)

In the 1980s, as research universities embraced a new role as engines of economic development, business incubators helped transform graduate students in science and engineering into entrepreneurs. Over time, these new nonprofit entities evolved to play a critical role in connecting students with venture capitalists/philanthropists, many of whom were also major donors to universities. Focusing on business incubators in the San Francisco Bay Area, Cambridge/Boston, and San Diego from the mid-1980s to the present, this paper looks at the evolving model of the business incubator over more than four decades and its influence on the culture of academic science.