First High-Tech Research Park

Stanford created the nation's first high-tech research park in 1951 in response to the demand for industrial land near university resources and an emerging electronics industry tied closely to the School of Engineering. The first lessee of the Stanford Research Park was Varian Associates. Instrumental to the creation and growth of Silicon Valley, the park is now home to more than 140 companies in electronics, software, biotechnology and other high-tech fields.

Stanford graduates and professors have founded Hewlett-Packard, Sun Microsystems, Cisco Systems, Yahoo! and other high-technology companies.