Leslie Berlin

Leslie Berlin is the Project Historian for the Silicon Valley Archives at Stanford University, where she documents and interprets the development of the global technology ecosystem through archival research, oral histories, and public scholarship. Her work focuses on the people, companies, and ideas that shaped the evolution of computing and Silicon Valley’s rise as a center of innovation.

Berlin is the author of The Man Behind the Microchip: Robert Noyce and the Invention of Silicon Valley, the acclaimed biography of Intel co-founder and microchip co-inventor Robert Noyce. She later authored Troublemakers, which profiles the transformative 1970–1980 decade when foundational Silicon Valley institutions—spanning venture capital, personal computing, networking, and biotech—took shape.

In addition to her books, Berlin contributed the “Prototype” column on innovation to The New York Times from September 2008 to July 2009, offering accessible reporting on cutting-edge ideas and the individuals behind them.

Berlin also serves on the advisory committee to the Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History, where she helps guide national efforts to preserve and interpret the history of invention and technological creativity.

Through her writing, archival leadership, and advisory roles, Berlin has become one of the foremost historians of Silicon Valley, illuminating the human narratives and institutional forces behind some of the most significant technological changes of the modern era.