Engineering Hero Craig Barrett Talks Research Universities and Competitiveness

In an interview on the day of his induction as a Stanford Engineering Hero, Craig Barrett, a former professor in the School of Engineering who rose to be CEO/Chairman of Intel, reminisced about his career, the central role of research universities in America’s economic past and future, and how to remain competitive going forward.

In 1974, Craig Barrett was a Professor of Materials Science at Stanford Engineering with tenure and all the other inducements of academia when fate intervened. Barrett accepted an offer to join a nearby semiconductor maker named Intel, then in just its fifth year of operation. 

Over the next 35 years, Barrett ascended the ranks at Intel to become CEO and Chairman, and the company became a legend in Silicon Valley as computers came to dominate virtually every aspect of modern society, and Intel to dominate chipmaking. That is not a bad career arc for a kid who in high school had to copy the word “metallurgy” from his friend’s college application just to get the spelling right.

Those were different times, Barrett recalled during an interview on the day of his induction as one of the Stanford’s Engineering Heroes – an honor bestowed by the School of Engineering on its most accomplished faculty and alumni. 

“It was 1957. Sputnik had just gone up,” Barrett remembered. “The influx of federal monies into engineering research, the growth of the engineering school under deans Fred Terman and Joe Pettit and others, was fantastic. It was just the most exciting place you could imagine.”

Other things were different, too. “Tuition was $250 a quarter. You did not need a parking sticker for your car. There were no parking garages. And there were trolley tracks up Palm Drive,” said Barrett.

The former professor and recently inducted Engineering Hero Craig Barrett talks about what lured him from academia to the semiconductor industry all those years ago.

Over the course of his career, Barrett learned a thing or two about the tight links between research, education and America’s global competitiveness. He sees research universities as the driver of America’s economic greatness and the key to its future. 

“The Stanfords, the MITs, the CalTechs are the backbone of new ideas. All you have to do is look around Stanford and Silicon Valley. Look around MIT, and Route 128. The spinoff of ideas, of people, of new product ideas, new companies, is just such a powerful economic engine,” he said.

Research universities are where smart people with a budget can explore the fringes to come up with great ideas, which, Barrett says, can compete with and challenge anything – the biggest company, the most powerful company, the biggest research budget in the world. He noted three companies with Stanford ties that prove his point – Netscape, Yahoo! and Google – all of which share humble beginnings, yet wielded tremendous influence.

“There is nothing more powerful than a single idea that comes from a single individual or a small group in a research university,” Barrett asserted. “That, in my mind, is beautiful.”

But, if the biggest, most powerful companies can be undone, can’t then research universities be toppled, too? Certainly, said Barrett. 

“The biggest challenge is stagnancy.  The great research universities – all the universities in the U.S. – are going to have to modify how they deliver their product to be affordable, to serve the community, to serve society,” he said.

Offering world-class education and research opportunities is integral to America’s continued global leadership. “The best thing our generation can do is give the next generation a great education. If they don’t have a great education, we’re denying them the opportunity to compete,” he said.

Looking back at an incredible career that seems designed as if solely to prove the adage that luck favors the prepared mind, Barrett offered up a few words of wisdom for future generations of engineering students: Go to the best school you can. Get the best education you can. And, most importantly, make sure you major in something you love.

“You have to feel it in your heart,” Barrett said, turning to another favorite topic. “I love fortune cookies because, you know, they are it. They’re never wrong. Once I opened a fortune cookie that said: ‘The world will always accept talent with open arms.’ Talent is a great education and passion for what you do. That’s it.” 

Asked to assess how he feels about being honored as a Stanford Engineering Hero, Barrett demurred. “Well, Dr. Plummer,” he said with a grin, referencing the Dean of the School of Engineering, Jim Plummer. “You’ve made a mistake including me with the Hewletts and Packards, the Cerfs and the Timoshenkos of the world. I’m honored by it, but in my mind, those guys are idols. If I’m a hero, it’s because I walked in their footsteps somewhere along the way.”

Andrew Myers is associate director of communications for the Stanford University School of Engineering.

Last modified Mon, 3 Dec, 2012 at 11:10