Frederick Terman

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Frederick Terman

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

Terman was professor and provost at Stanford University. During his tenure as provost of the school, Terman greatly expanded the science, statistics and engineering departments in order to win more research grants from the Department of Defense. These grants, in addition to the funds that the patented research generated, helped to catapult Stanford into the ranks of the world's first class educational institutions, as well as spurring the growth of Silicon Valley. Stanford's Frederick Emmons Terman Engineering Center is named in his honor.

Dr. Terman was also a founding member of the National Academy of Engineering.[1]

Terman's father Lewis Terman, the man who popularized the IQ test in America, was also a professor at Stanford.

Terman earned a ScD in electrical engineering in 1924 from MIT. [2] Terman's PhD advisor was Vannevar Bush, who created the NSF, among many other notable activities. Terman's PhD students at Stanford included Oswald Garrison Villard, jr. William Hewlett and David Packard.

Terman also wrote Radio Engineering (first edition in 1932; second edition, much improved, in 1938), one of the most important books on electrical and radio engineering, and still a good reference on those subjects.

Terman 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."

[edit] Commemoration

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.[3]
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. [4]
Terman Middle School, in Palo Alto, California is named after Frederick Terman, a longtime resident.