But some at Harvard fear these profits are coming at the expense of the University’s academic integrity.

While many are excited about the possibilities of tech transfer, some take issue with the inherent ethical considerations.

“If you get in a situation where you get half of your professors trying to run companies as well as be professors, you get a situation where one professor’s company may be competing with another professor’s company—a terrible situation,” Herschbach says.

Even Golovchenko—a recruit from Bell Labs—expressed serious reservations about the conflicts of interest posed by tech transfer.

The University has been careful to lay down strict guidelines for its relationship with industry. Each school has its own conflict of interest policy requiring professors to report their financial interests. And the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS), in which many of the most important scientific discoveries are made, has committees on professional conduct and research policy to ensure compliance.

“The difficult questions aren’t the ones concerned with what most would agree is unethical behavior,” writes Paul C. Martin, dean of research and information technology for FAS, in an e-mail. “The questions that continually arise have to do with the ‘very light gray’ area—how best to prevent real or apparent conflicts of interest or commitment.”

But despite careful oversight, the potential for compromising academic integrity exists anytime industry gets behind an academic project, critics say. The work of John D. Graham, former director of the Center for Risk Analysis at the Harvard School of Public Health and current director of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs at the White House, is one example of industry-backed research that critics have accused of being too pro-business.

But Hyman says realizing profit from discoveries does not necessarily mean “selling one’s soul” to industry.

“It’s not unreasonable for the University and inventor to recover gains from licensing a patent, much of which goes back into funding for more research,” he says.

The University’s main goal in pursuing tech transfer is bridging the gulf between the academy and the real world, according to Hyman.

“I think technology transfer is widely misunderstood at Harvard and at many places,” he says. “The goal of tech transfer is to get technology commercialized in order to benefit people.”

Professors also applaud tech transfer for its potential to make significant ivory tower discoveries accessible and useful to the population at large.

“You could make a great discovery that would help mankind, and nobody will use it, because they can’t make a profit,” Golovchenko says. “In fact, your discovery might end up being sterile.”

And despite its potential drawbacks, tech transfer is vital to keeping Harvard on the cutting edge of research, Golovchenko says.

“Ultimately, how does a university stay relevant? This is how.”

—Staff writer Stephen M. Marks can be reached at marks@fas.harvard.edu.