Irwin Mark Jacobs is an electrical engineer, a co-founder and former chairman of Qualcomm, and chair of the board of trustees of the Salk Institute.
Background
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. Additionally, he is a brother of Sigma Alpha Mu Fraternity.
Education
He is a brother of Sigma Alpha Mu Fraternity
Career
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.
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.