here is no doubt that Stanford alumni are famous for founding companies. Many of their start-ups -- SUN Microsystems, Cisco Systems, Silicon Graphics, and, of course, Hewlett-Packard -- have become global leaders in their fields, employing hundreds of thousands of people worldwide with a combined market cap in the billions.

Encouraging entrepreneurship and close ties to the business world is a part of the Stanford culture that can be traced back to the pioneer days of the university and, more recently, to Dr. Frederick Terman. The former dean of the School of Engineering envisioned a bustling hi-technology region surrounding the Stanford campus. Dr. Terman hoped to see his engineers graduate and find employment in the area, thereby promoting ties to younger generations of engineers. As employers and founders of new companies, they could provide internships and research opportunities.

Dr. Terman's vision was furthered by Jim Clark's $150 million gift to found the James H. Clark Center for Biomedical Engineering and Sciences at Stanford. Clark's 1999 investment in this type of ground-breaking research stems from his belief in Stanford's ability to encourage the transfer of technologies developed on campus to private business. Through technology transfer, Stanford contributes greatly to advances in health, technology, and the economy.

Clark, himself the beneficiary of this process, says that he is indebted to the university because, as a Stanford professor in the early 1980s, he was allowed to develop technologies that later brought him success in the private arena. He founded Silicon Graphics, Netscape, Healtheon, and MyCFO.com.

Clark believes that graduate student research is often the seed of new technologies that in turn spark business ideas. Accordingly, of his $150 million gift, $5 million will be designated for Stanford Graduate Fellowships. The freedom to pursue original research is invaluable, as Clark's own track record proves.