Frederick Terman life and biography

Frederick Emmons Terman (June 7, 1900 in English, Indiana – December 19, 1982) was an American academic. He is widely credited (together with William Shockley) with being the father of Silicon Valley.

Frederick Terman studied under Vannevar Bush at MIT, and conducted important research into electronics research and anti-radar technology, including World War II work that helped Allied aircraft elude anti-aircraft fire. He virtually founded Stanford's modern electrical engineering program, largely underwritten in early years with royalties from his own numerous patents, which included several improvements to vacuum tubes.

He began teaching part-time at Stanford while recuperating from tuberculosis, spending two hours each day in class and the rest of his time in bed. Years later he mentored two of his former students -- William Hewlett and David Packard -- as they went into business marketing an audio oscillator.

As Stanford set aside some unused land on the campus for use as an industrial park, Terman proposed that hi-tech firms be courted as prospective tenants, to help Stanford graduates find industry jobs and to increase the university's association with technology leadership.

He urged William Shockley to bring Shockley Transistor Laboratory to Palo Alto; other early occupants included General Electric, Hewlett-Packard, Kodak, and Lockheed. Stanford Research Park is still among the world's largest and most successful, and Terman is considered a founding father of Silicon Valley.

Looking back on his creation in his declining years, Frederick Terman reflected, "When we set out to create a community of technical scholars in Silicon Valley, there wasn't much here and the rest of the world looked awfully big. Now a lot of the rest of the world is here."When once asked whether he wanted his university [Stanford] to be a teaching institution or a research institution, he replied that "it should be a learning institution".

Recognition:
-He was awarded the IRE Medal of Honor in 1950 for "his many contributions to the radio and electronic industry as teacher, author, scientist and administrator".
-The Frederick Emmons Terman Award was established in 1969 by the American Society for Engineering Education, Electrical and Computer Engineering Division. It is sponsored by Hewlett-Packard and is bestowed annually upon an outstanding young electrical engineering educator.
-The Frederick Emmons Terman Engineering Scholastic Award is presented to the students that rank academically in the top five percent of the graduating senior class from the Stanford University School of Engineering.
-Stanford's Frederick Emmons Terman Engineering Center is named in his honor.
-Terman Middle School, in Palo Alto, California is named after Terman and his father.
-In the KAIST, the most famous Korean university of science, Terman Hall is named after Terman as he made the fundamental report called 'Terman Report', for the purpose of founding the university.

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