Frederick Terman

Frederick Emmons Terman ( born June 7, 1900 in English, Indiana, † December 19, 1982 in Palo Alto, California ) was an American electrical engineer. Considered together with William Shockley as the "Father of Silicon Valley."

Biography

Terman studied at Stanford University and later became a professor ( engineering) and Provost of the University. He encouraged his students to start their own business in the area or work in neighboring firms, where he also helped himself at the start-ups. After the Second World War Terman attracted many government-funded research projects and made Stanford as a " talent " in the high tech field.

Terman influenced and promoted David Packard and William Hewlett, in their legendary small garage in Silicon Valley, a company founded in 1939. This then quickly developed into one of the first and most successful high-tech companies in the world - Hewlett- Packard (HP).

In addition, Terman built in 1951 " Stanford Industrial Park " had for start-up companies in which a few years later settled in the companies like IBM and HP. A short time later, there were then more than 150 companies, including Kodak and Apple. Even today, HP has its headquarters there.