The person nicknamed "Mayor of Silicon Valley", Robert Norton Noyce helped to create a technology which would eventually change the face of electronics.

The kid to a congregational minister, Robert was born on the 12th of December 1927 in Burlington, Iowa and used up his childhood days in Grinell of the same State. He attended Grinell College and got a degree with Physics as his major. He was a born leader, showing extraordinary confidence in everything he did. Grant Gale, Noyce's Physics professor in college, attained 2 of the earliest transistors produced by Bell Labs. Gale showed the transistors to his class and Noyce became immediately fascinated by them. This occurrence did eventually lead to the concept of the silicon chip or what we now name the microchip.

Noyce entered Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1948 for a Ph.D. and acquired it in 1953. After this he became involved with the advancement of the Germanium transistor during his stint at Philco Corporation as a research engineer. Noyce did ultimately leave Philco and joined Shockley Transistor Company to work in their semiconductor laboratory in 1956. This corporation was founded by William Shockley, a co-inventor of the transistor. It had been in that company that Noyce commenced research on transistors using silicon.

Nevertheless, Shockley and Noyce weren't meant to be together for long as their scientific ideas and personalities collided. Despondent with the company, Noyce and 7 of his fellow researchers left in 1957 to form their own company, Fairchild Semiconductor. Being the director for research and development of the newly established company, Noyce focused on methods to develop the compound circuit interconnections needed for advanced electronic devices. In 1959, he was in a position to merge all of the components in one small block of silicon consequently producing his own version of the integrated circuit. He consequently filed for a patent later that year but a lengthy legal battle with Jack Kilby of Texas Instruments soon followed. Kilby was the first one to invent an integrated circuit; however, it had been Noyce who ultimately got the patent in 1969.

During that time, the electronics business was youthful and the invention of integrated circuits revolutionized the industry. Fairchild Semiconductor manufactured more integrated circuits than any company. As Noyce had once done with Shockley, he left Fairchild in 1968 and brought along Gordon Moore and Andrew Grove to create Intel Corporation. They concentrated their efforts in developing and producing silicon chips and microprocessors. Intel ultimately became the most important manufacturer of microchips in the world. It still is today.

In the latter part of 1970s, Noyce initiated some moves to uphold the electronics industry. He was at the forefront of setting up organizations such as Sematech - a group of 14 semiconductor corporations with the goal of reinforcing the electronics industry to face foreign rivals. Robert Noyce died of a heart attack at the age of 62 in Austin, Texas. But his legacy will forever be etched on the face of microchips, not only in Silicon Valley but all over the world. A remarkable man.