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Portrait of Frederick Terman

Portrait of Frederick Terman

Image creditRic Teague, The Stanford Daily, July 28, 1955 (published without copyright notice)
Public domain ↗

Portrait of Frederick Terman

Year
1946
Creator
Frederick E. Terman
Company
Stanford University
Location
Stanford, California

Description

This portrait shows Frederick Terman in 1955, the year that he became the provost of Stanford. Terman was a radio engineer, and his 1932 textbook, Radio Engineering, was a standard book for students of radio.

Importance

Terman put federal contracts and excellent researchers into a small number of strong fields, and he called these fields steeples of excellence. As dean of engineering from 1946 and provost until 1965, he used this plan across the university. He also sent students and faculty to nearby companies such as Hewlett-Packard and Varian Associates.

Interesting fact

Stanford named Terman dean of engineering in 1944, but he started the job only when he returned from Harvard in 1946.

Sources

  1. Frederick Emmons Terman, 1900-1982 (Biographical Memoirs, Volume 74) ↗National Academies Press (O. G. Villard Jr.) · 1998
  2. History of the School of Engineering (former deans) ↗Stanford School of Engineering
  3. Fred Terman (Stanford Engineering Heroes) ↗Stanford School of Engineering · 2011
  4. Fred Terman at Stanford: Building a Discipline, a University, and Silicon Valley (review) ↗Physics Today (AIP)