Stanford University

Stanford University，its affiliates，and graduates have played a major role in the development of this area.Some examples include the work of Lee De Forest with his invention of apioneering vacuum tube called the Audion and the oscilloscopes of Hewlett-Packard.

A very powerful sense of regional solidarity accompanied the rise of Silicon Valley.From the 1890s，Stanford University's leaders saw its mission as service to the West and shaped the school accordingly.At the same time，the perceived exploitation of the West at the hands of eastern interests fueled booster-like attempts to build self-sufficient indigenous local industry.Thus，regionalism helped align Stanford's interests with those of the area's high-tech firms for the first fifty years of Silicon Valley's development.

During the 1940s and 1950s，Frederick Terman，as Stanford's dean of engineering and provost，encouraged faculty and graduates to start their own companies.He is credited with nurturing Hewlett-Packard，Varian Associates，and other hightech firms，until what would become Silicon Valley grew up around the Stanford campus.Terman is often called“the father of Silicon Valley”.

In 1956 William Shockley，the creator of the transistor，moved from New Jersey to Mountain View，California，to start Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory to live closer to his ailing mother in Palo Alto.Shockley's work served as the basis for many electronic developments for decades.

During 1955—1985，solid state technology research and development at Stanford University followed three waves of industrial innovation made possible by support from private corporations，mainly Bell Telephone Laboratories，Shockley Semiconductor，Fairchild Semiconductor，and Xerox PARC.In 1969，the Stanford Research Institute（now SRI International），operated one of the four original nodes that comprised ARPANET，predecessor to the Internet.