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Robert NoyceAmerican engineer and entrepreneur
Date of Birth: 12.12.1927
Country:  USA |
Content:
Biography of Robert Noyce
Robert Norton Noyce was an American engineer and entrepreneur, best known as one of the founders of Fairchild Semiconductor and Intel Corporation. He is considered alongside Jack Kilby as the inventor of the integrated circuit, which revolutionized modern computing.
Early Life and Education
Robert Noyce was born in Burlington, Iowa, to Reverend Ralph Brewster Noyce and Harriet May Norton. From a young age, Noyce had a unique personality, refusing to accept defeat in games and always striving for victory. In the summer of 1940, at the age of 12, Noyce built a small airplane with one of his brothers and they even flew it from the roof of a local stable. He later built his own radio receiver and motorized sled using spare parts, including an old propeller and motor from a washing machine. Despite his deeply religious parents, Noyce became an agnostic and never returned to religion.
Noyce showed a talent for the exact sciences, particularly mathematics, during his high school years. In 1945, he enrolled at Grinnell College, where he not only studied but also participated in swimming, singing, and theater productions. However, his studies at college were almost interrupted by a wild incident - Noyce stole a pig from the mayor's farm. He was caught and nearly sent to jail for a year, but Grant Gale, a physics professor and the college president, convinced the mayor to reach a compromise. As a result, Noyce received a one-month suspension. He graduated in 1949 with a bachelor's degree in physics and mathematics.
Noyce developed a special interest in physics, especially after attending lectures by Professor Gale where he saw the first transistors produced at Bell Labs. Encouraged by Gale, Noyce continued studying physics as a graduate student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He absorbed new knowledge at an exceptional speed and obtained his Ph.D. in 1953. Shortly after, Noyce became a research engineer at Philco Corporation in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and then moved to the Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory in Mountain View, California, where he worked with William Shockley, one of the co-inventors of the transistor and a Nobel laureate.
Founding Fairchild Semiconductor and Intel
In 1957, Noyce, along with seven others, left Shockley due to his difficult working conditions and lack of leadership skills. They found refuge under Sherman Fairchild, forming Fairchild Semiconductor. In 1968, Noyce and Gordon Moore left Fairchild and established Intel Corporation. According to Arthur Rock, the chairman of the board and one of the company's largest investors, Intel succeeded largely due to the efforts of Noyce, Moore, and Andrew Grove. Noyce was recognized as an outstanding visionary and inspirer, Moore possessed a mastery of high technology, and Grove had exceptional management talents. The working culture at Intel was characterized by kindness, as Noyce treated his employees like family, regularly encouraging and rewarding them for their initiative. This leadership style was credited as a key factor in the company's success.
Noyce disliked the typical symbols of a successful businessman, such as expensive cars, private planes, and lavishly furnished offices. His efforts were not in vain, as under his leadership, Ted Hoff created the first microprocessor. In 1953, Noyce married Elizabeth Bottomley, and they later had four children. Elizabeth had a great love for New England, so the family acquired a summer property in Bremen, Maine, where she and the children would spend their summers. Occasionally, Noyce would visit their family estate, but he never stopped working at Intel during the summer. In 1974, Robert and Elizabeth divorced after she discovered his affair with Barbara Maness, an Intel employee. Noyce later married Ann Schmeltz Bowers. On June 3, 1990, Robert Noyce suffered a heart attack and passed away in a hospital in Austin, Texas.
