Look Beyond The Valey

- Amit Sridharan

The Silicon Valley, as we know it today, was a rural economy. It was Fred Terman, the Stanford provost—also known as ‘Father of Silicon Valley’—who built the base for the hi-tech industry in the West. He was 10 years old when he moved to Stanford with his parents. The stage was set as the young man received his degree in electrical engineering from Stanford. He then headed east to MIT. In those days, Terman recalled, “a serious young engineer had to go back east to put spit and polish on his education.” He earned a PhD in 1924 at MIT.

At the age of 24, doctorate in hand, he returned home to the Stanford campus to spend the summer. He planned to join the faculty at MIT in the fall as an assistant professor. Instead, tragedy struck; he developed a serious case of miliary tuberculosis. Terman spent the next year in bed, with sandbags on his chest. There was no specific treatment for tuberculosis at the time and he accepted a part-time teaching position at Stanford.

As his health recovered and he grew to becoming a full-time professor and later the dean of the engineering school, Terman attracted strong government funding post the World War II era, to Stanford. He was thus able to attract bright new faculty and students to the West. He was also very involved with students and encouraged them towards entrepreneurship. In addition, he continued to encourage his graduates to start their own companies. Faculty members soon joined in consulting, investing, and, in some instances, founding new companies. Terman believed in building an ecosystem that fused government funding, university research, and industry. In 1951, this led to the setting up of the Stanford Industrial Park where many of the early semi-conductor companies built their offices.