Robert Langer and his lab

MIT Professor Robert Langer's lab has spawned literally dozens of companies. Yes, there is the usual academic carping that perhaps commercial considerations are influencing scholarship (as if scholarship were otherwise uninfluenced), and surely it cannot help that David Koch (yes, one of those Kochs) endowed Langer's chair. But MIT has a ready answer:

“The founding principle in 1861, when M.I.T. was created, was to provide and support the industrialization of America. I always say we were founded on the principle of tech transfer,” says Susan Hockfield, who served as M.I.T.’s president from December 2004 until June of this year.

It being hard to think of a more noble mission for a university, we, at least, are satisfied.