So he left and started what became Nektar Therapeutics with Robert Platz of the Stanford Research Institute.

FORBES: The Impossible Made Possible

Ludwig was sitting next to archaeologist Kent Weeks at a Stanford Research Institute luncheon back in 1980.

FORBES: Treasure saver

In 1959, four scientists from the Stanford Research Institute bought the property and made wine, initially for their own consumption, from the surviving vineyards.

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So he left and started what became Nektar Therapeutics (nasdaq: NKTR - news - people ) with Robert Platz of the Stanford Research Institute.

FORBES: The Impossible Made Possible

First conceived by Dr Douglas Engelbart and aided by Bill English -- who would later design the first "ball mouse" -- at the Stanford Research Institute in 1965, the mouse was first used commercially by Xerox in their "Star Workstation" computer made in 1981.

CNN: In touch with the digital age

Laura is President of the Marc and Laura Andreessen Foundation, and she sits on multiple boards, including the Sand Hill Foundation, the Arrillaga Foundation, Stanford University School of Education, Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research, and, formerly, the Silicon Valley Community Foundation.

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Careful work by Maria Donovan Fitzpatrick of the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research looked at student achievement in Georgia as its pre-K program phased in.

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Allan Manne of Stanford University and Richard Richels, who works at the Electric Power Research Institute, an industry-funded policy research group based in Palo Alto, California, have been studying this idea.

ECONOMIST: A cooling off period

Except for the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Stanford University, which have developed strong networks of fundraisers, most research institutions, he found, were grasping for help getting technology off their shelves.

FORBES: Venture Academics