Robert Noyce.

Co-founder of Intel Corp.

Robert Noyce founded two companies that would largely shape today’s computer industry—Fairchild Semiconductor and Intel. Co inventor of Microchip.

Robert Norton Noyce was born on December 12, 1927, in Burlington, Iowa. He received a bachelor's degree in physics and mathematics from Grinnell College in 1949 and a doctorate in physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1953. Bob Noyce's nickname was the "Mayor of Silicon Valley."

In 1957 Noyce co-founded the Fairchild Semiconductor Corp. in Mountain View, CA. On April 25, 1960, Dr. Noyce was granted a patent for his invention of a ``Semiconductor Device-and-Lead Structure'' -- an integrated circuit. This discovery made the microchip possible and launched the modern electronics revolution. In July 1968 he co-founded Intel Corp. with Gordon E. Moore. Robert Noyce was also credited (along with Jack Kilby) with the invention of the integrated circuit or microchip.

He served for many years as a trustee of Grinnell College and as chair of the Board of Trustees.Noyce died from heart failure in 1990, at the age of 62.