Some people have devoted their lives to developing robots, such as Colin Angle and Helen Greiner, who founded iRobot with their academic adviser, Rodney Brooks.

FORBES: Magazine Article

Some people have devoted their lives to developing robots, such as Colin Angle and Helen Greiner, who founded iRobot (nasdaq: IRBT - news - people ) with their academic adviser, Rodney Brooks.

FORBES: The Robots Are Coming!

"Well, the first sign that my new state university academic adviser job was a bad move was the fact that my future boss arrived 35 minutes late for our interview, breezing in after taking two of my future co-workers to lunch, " recalls Carmin Wharton, founder and CEO of e-BlackWomenNetwork.com.

CNN: Signs your new job is lousy

English is all very well for globe-spanning deals, suggests Hugo Baetens Beardsmore, a Belgian academic and adviser on language policy to the European Commission.

ECONOMIST: The economic consequences of the rise of English

The state was unusual, both because it had lots of old deteriorating houses and because its definition of public nuisance was particularly broad, says Don Gifford, an academic and adviser to the industry.

ECONOMIST: Environmental risks

David Maister, a leading adviser to professional-service firms and a former academic at Harvard Business School, says that there is a yawning gap between what the big firms are offering and what their corporate clients want.

ECONOMIST: Spoilt for choice

In 1999, after Condoleezza Rice stepped down as provost to become the chief foreign-policy adviser to the Republican Presidential candidate George W. Bush, Casper offered Hennessy the position of chief academic and financial officer of the university.

NEWYORKER: Get Rich U.

Warren was the Chief Adviser to the National Bankruptcy Review Commission, and she was appointed by Chief Justice Rehnquist as the first academic member of the Federal Judicial Education Committee.

WHITEHOUSE: The White House