Research is by nature high risk/high reward. In most fields, it takes years for research to make it into an actual product. Programming language research doesn't stop at developing new languages. Automated testing tools like Microsoft's PEX fall under the same umbrella of formal methods.
Even if the research doesn't affect a completely new programming language, it could very likely have a strong hand in updating old ones. See programming language memory models for instance.
Very few languages are truly groundbreaking. Most are simply refinements of existing ideas (doesn't necessarily mean that they're not a step forward). If you're interested in something earth-shatteringly different, you're going to need to look into programming language research to find it (One great reference that could probably answer this question better is http://lambda-the-ultimate.org/).
For examples of a recent-ish language that was developed by a professor at UIUC, see http://maude.cs.uiuc.edu/, which is based on rewriting logic and is currently still being developed/refined. But even that has strong ties to a previous language OBJ by the same creator.
Even if the research doesn't affect a completely new programming language, it could very likely have a strong hand in updating old ones. See programming language memory models for instance.