The path from PhD to CEO

Large corporate laboratories generated some of the most important innovations of the 20th century. These days, funding for those organizations has faded, and some young chemists are trying to fill the gap by starting companies based on their PhD or postdoctoral research. But jumping from academia to the C-suite of a start-up is hard. Researchers have to learn how to manage a team, pitch their idea to investors, and steer their company through a maze of unforeseeable obstacles. Launching a chemistry company can take years of grueling work, and the odds of striking it rich are slim. Still, some founders are taking on the challenge. They’re creating the technologies that may keep Earth habitable through the 21st century and beyond. In June 1948, reporters, government officials, and scientists gathered at the Manhattan headquarters of Bell Laboratories, the storied corporate research arm of Bell Telephone , to see a demonstration of