Chinese universities are booming in terms of patent activity, but a study reveals a troubling issue: 'patent bubbles.' Waverly Ding's research exposes this trend, questioning China's innovation strategy. Explore the implications of this trend for China's innovation landscape.

You might think bringing an entrepreneur onto a company’s top leadership is a no-brainer. After all, they know how to lead, are risk-takers, and are known for being innovative. But these can be the very reasons why post-entrepreneurs are not hired as executives or for any other job.

Editor’s note: For women with a science or engineering PhD, is academia a more equitable haven, compared to industry? Is it a place where gender gaps narrow in pay and promotions? In recent research published in Nature Biotechnology, Maryland Smith’s Rajshree Agarwal and Waverly Ding, together with Hitotsubashi University’s Atsushi Ohyama, explored those questions. Writing for the journal’s “Behind the Paper” series, they describe their findings. Below is an excerpt of what they wrote. By Rajshree Agarwal and Waverly Ding

SMITH BRAIN TRUST – The BBC's "Doctor Who" series has long embraced the idea of change. It's been written into the script for years, with the timelord protagonist's biological ability for regeneration and new incarnations.

SMITH BRAIN TRUST — Corporate gender gaps have narrowed in recent years, but men continue to dominate high-level positions. Among Fortune 500 companies, for example, women held only 20 percent of all board seats in the 2016 Board Diversity Census published Feb. 6, 2017, from the Alliance for Board Diversity in partnership with Deloitte.

SMITH BRAIN TRUST – How close are the Fortune 500 companies to achieving gender equality on their corporate boards? They've got a long way to go, baby.

SMITH BRAIN TRUST — Can you have a high-powered job and also a rewarding life outside work? Do ambitious companies have any incentive to make this happen? And are market forces sufficient to make sure that workers with families or sick relatives are treated fairly by managers?

The Smith School is happy to welcome the following new professors to the school: Accounting & Information Assurance Hanna Lee Derek Johnson Decisions, Operations & Information Technologies Tunay Tunca Inbal Yahav Ilya O. Ryzhov Pamela Armstrong Ilchul Yoon Rui Zhao

A new study shows that large pay gaps among R&D professionals at the same job level within an organization can stifle exploratory innovation — the kind that leads to U.S. patent filings.