Pendred E. Noyce (Penny) is the daughter of the Libra Foundation's founder, Betty Noyce. Penny grew up in California and graduated with a degree in biochemistry from Harvard University and an M.D. from Stanford University School of Medicine. She did her internship and residency in internal medicine in Minneapolis-St. Paul and then worked at the East Boston Community Health Center. She received a diploma in Tropical Medicine and Hygiene from the London School of Tropical Medicine. Subsequently, she worked at Newton-Wellesley Hospital, but she left the practice of medicine after the birth of her fifth child.

In 1991, Penny became a founding trustee of the Noyce Foundation, which supports K-12 mathematics and science education across the U.S. For nine years she also helped lead a statewide, NSF-funded effort to improve mathematics, science, and technology education in Massachusetts. Currently she serves on the Massachusetts Board of Elementary and Secondary Education.

Penny is a past trustee of Radcliffe College and a past board member of the Concord Consortium, TERC, the Gulf of Maine Research Institute, and the Center for Engineering Education Outreach at Tufts University. She is an advisory member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science Public Outreach Committee. Currently she also serves a board member of the Irving Foundation and the Consortium for Mathematics and its Applications (COMAP), as well as board chair for the Rennie Center for Education Research and Policy and the Libra Foundation.

Penny edited a volume titled New Frontiers in Formative Assessment from Harvard Education Press. She is author or co-author of seven novels for children ages 9-12, including Lost in Lexicon and The Ice Castle from Scarletta Press and five books in the Galactic Academy of Science series from Tumblehome Learning. Her most recent book is Magnificent Minds: Sixteen Pioneering Women in Science and Medicine. As cofounder of Tumblehome Learning, which publishes science mystery and adventure stories for young people, Penny serves as Tumblehome's editor and chair.

Penny and her husband, Leo X. Liu, MD, live in Boston with their youngest child.