Want to see your research have a real impact? One great way to do so is to get involved in turning your work into a product.

Postdocs, it seems, are not so interested in doing so. George Mason professor Edmund Zolnik recently surveyed DC metro area postdocs about their interest in entrepreneurial careers.

in a survey he conducted of 126 individuals, only two--two!--listed entrepreneurial career tracks as their top choice

Zolnik attributes the problem to lack of awareness of possibilities:

He points to model courses like one taught at the University of Texas at Austin on how to transform research into marketable products, or to "entrepreneurial mentorship programs" offered at business schools, as potential interventions to steer postdocs toward careers of entrepreneurship.

But some people have bigger problems:

one wrote on Zolnik's survey, "I don't give a damn about transferring technology, greedy bastards."

This kind of attitude shows a real lack of awareness of the history of scientific research, at least in the US. If you read Science: The Endless Frontier, you'll see that the primary rationale for federal funding of basic research - and the reason that most postdocs get paid - is the idea that their work will lead to eventual technology transfer.

I'm not familiar with UT Austin's course, but UCSF has something that sounds similar, Idea to IPO. It's open to the general public, and a friend who recently took it gave the class rave reviews.