Irwin M. Jacobs

Irwin Mark Jacobs (born October 18, 1933) is an electrical engineer, a co-founder and former chairman of Qualcomm, and chair of the board of trustees of the Salk Institute.

Jacobs was born to a Jewish family in New Bedford, Massachusetts. He earned his B.S. degree in electrical engineering from Cornell University in 1956, and his S.M. and Sc.D. degrees in EECS (Electrical Engineering and Computer Science) from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1957 and 1959, respectively. His doctoral advisor was Edward Arthurs. Additionally, he is a brother of Sigma Alpha Mu Fraternity.

Jacobs was Assistant and Associate Professor of Electrical Engineering at MIT from 1959 to 1966 and Professor of Computer Science and Engineering at University of California, San Diego from 1966 to 1972. He co-authored a textbook entitled Principles of Communication Engineering in 1965, which is still in use today. UCSD's Jacobs School of Engineering is named for him and his wife.

In 1968 Jacobs co-founded Linkabit Corporation with Andrew Viterbi to develop satellite encryption devices. That company merged with M/A-COM in 1980, becoming M/A-COM Linkabit.

In 1985 Jacobs went on to co-found Qualcomm along with Andrew Viterbi, Harvey White, Adelia Coffman, Andrew Cohen, Klein Gilhousen, and Franklin Antonio. QUALCOMM developed the OmniTRACS system was deemed one of the world's most "technologically advanced two-way mobile satellite communications and tracking systems." He pioneered these systems which use the communication bandwidth more efficiently than the older fixed time-sliced TDMA technology. Its Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) has been adopted as one of two digital standards (the other being GSM) used in the next generation of cellular telephones in North America at the time. Jacobs announced on March 3, 2009 that he had stepped down as chairman of Qualcomm and that Paul E. Jacobs, his son, had been named to succeed him.

Jacobs is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and a Fellow of the IEEE. He is a chairman on the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, and is on the international advisory board for the Israel Institute of Technology. Additionally, he serves on the advisory board for the School of Economics and Management at Tsing Hua University in Beijing. He is also active on the board of directors of the Pacific Council on International Policy in Los Angeles.

In 1980, Jacobs was the co-recipient, with Andrew J. Viterbi, the 1980 American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) biannual award. In 1992, Jacobs was awarded the Entrepreneur of the Year Award in High Technology by the Institute of American Entrepreneurs, and in May 1993, he was awarded the American Electronics Association (AEA) "Inventing America's Future" award.

For his development of CDMA, Jacobs was awarded the National Medal of Technology and Innovation in 1994. That same year, he was awarded the 1994 Cornell University Entrepreneur of the Year Award. In 1995, Jacobs won the 1995 IEEE Alexander Graham Bell Medal For outstanding contributions to telecommunications, including leadership, theory, practice and product development.

In 2009, he was named an AAAS (American Association for the Advancement of Science) Fellow.

He was named a Marconi Prize recipient and Marconi Fellow in 2011. Jacobs was awarded the Bower Award for Business Leadership in 2001.

Jacobs and his wife Joan Jacobs are contributors to public arts and education in San Diego. For this, Jacobs was awarded the Woodrow Wilson Award for Corporate Citizenship in 2004.

Jacobs delivered the 2005 commencement speech at MIT, and the 2008 commencement speech at the Jacobs School of Engineering.

Jacobs and Andrew J. Viterbi received the 2007 IEEE/RSE Wolfson James Clerk Maxwell Award, for "fundamental contributions, innovation, and leadership that enabled the growth of wireless telecommunications".

In 2011 he received the Marconi Prize together with Jack Wolf.

On April 19, 2012, Jacobs was named the W. P. Carey School of Business Dean’s Council of 100 Executive of the Year, which honors change-making business leaders who serve as models for today’s business students.

In 2013, Jacobs was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame.

In August 2013 he received the Medal of Honor from the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), which is the highest honor an engineer can receive from his or her peers. The IEEE said he was receiving the award not just for his innovations but for "the ability to translate innovation into industry applications, time after time after time."

In November 2013, he was conferred the title of Distinguished Honor Chair Professor of National Tsing Hua University, TAIWAN.

On 19 August 2014, Jacobs was conferred the Honorary Degree of Doctor of Engineering (Honoris Causa) from National Tsing Hua University

Jacobs was elected to the Computer History Museum as a 2014 Fellow for "his pioneering work in digital mobile telephony, data and communications, and technology".

As the co-founder and chairman of Qualcomm, Jacobs has contributed hundreds of millions of dollars to the field of education through generous donations and grants to several schools and organizations. His donations have gone mostly towards fellowships and scholarships for deserving students in the fields of engineering and computer science, as well as the arts, and are focused in the San Diego area. The San Diego Union Tribune in 2011 dubbed him the "Philanthropist in Chief".

As of September 2009, Jacobs had donated a total of $31 million to his post graduate degrees school the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He had donated $15 million and another $110 million to the University of California, San Diego where he was a professor of computer science and engineering for several years. Additionally he has donated $62 million total to the American Society for Technion, his alma mater Cornell University, KPBS Radio and Television, and San Diego Natural History Museum. His KPBS donation was in the sum of $1 million, and the multi-year gift is designed to strengthen the station's local journalism and news collaboration with NPR. The Jacobs have donated funds to build studios for KPBS and have supported the station for decades. In 2010 he funded an engineering study on how to fulfill a long-planned proposal to remove automobiles from the Plaza de Panama in San Diego's Balboa Park and agreed to chair a committee to study the proposal and develop private funding for it.

Jacobs has pledged $120 million for the San Diego Symphony, a similar amount for the Jacobs School of Engineering at the University of California, San Diego, $75 million for UCSD's future specialty hospital and $20 million to replace the central library in downtown San Diego. Also in 2005 the Joan and Irwin Jacobs Center for La Jolla Playhouse was named after Jacobs and his wife in honor of their philanthropic contributions towards the institution's development. In April 2013, the Jacobs donated $133 million to the joint Cornell/Technion(Israel) Technology campus development on Roosevelt Island in New York City.

The Giving Pledge

In August 2010, Irwin and Joan Jacobs joined the Giving Pledge, pledging to give away most of their fortune to philanthropy. The Giving Pledge consists of around 40 American billionaires who have agreed to pledge 50 percent or more of their wealth to philanthropic causes. As of 2010, 50 percent of Jacob's wealth would equal $600 million. As part of the pledge, the Jacobses will choose which charities they would like to donate at least 50 percent of their estate to.

Jacobs is married to a New York City native, dietician, and fellow Cornell graduate (1952), Joan Jacobs (née Klein) since 1954. They reside in La Jolla, California, and have four sons. Their son Paul E. Jacobs succeeded Irwin as CEO of Qualcomm until stepping down on March 4, 2014. Jeff Jacobs was the Chief Marketing Officer of Qualcomm. Hal Jacobs the second oldest, played on the 1985 USA Maccabi volleyball team, and is a co-producer of the musical Jersey Boys. Their eldest son Gary Jacobs is the head of the board of the Gary and Jerri-Ann Jacobs High Tech High Charter School. Jacobs's grandson, Adam Jacobs, is a former catcher of the Cornell University baseball team. His outside interests include the arts, reading, jogging, and family outings.