The smartest people I have personally worked with work for companies like Siemens, GE, etc. on very technical things that require an understanding of a broad ra

The smartest people I have personally worked with work for companies like Siemens, GE, etc. on very technical things that require an understanding of a broad range of tech combined with a lot of domain expertise, usually gained from at least some stint in academia. Usually money not so motivating as an interesting problem domain.