Irwin Mark Jacobs

Irwin Jacobs, a co-founder of Qualcomm Inc., made major contributions to code division multiple access (CDMA), an advanced voice and data wireless communications technology.

Jacobs was born in New Bedford, Massachusetts, in 1933. As a high school student, he developed a strong interest in math, chemistry and physics. Though he’d initially considered studying one of these subjects in college, when he entered Cornell University, he followed his school counselor’s advice and pursued what he thought was a more practical career path by studying hotel administration. However, his roommate, who was studying engineering, inspired him to change his major halfway through his sophomore year. “I made a very significant change in my life and decided to transfer over to electrical engineering,” said Jacobs. “And that was a very exciting period.”

In 1956, Jacobs graduated from Cornell with a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering. He then continued studying electrical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where he earned his master’s degree in 1957 and his doctorate in 1959.

Following his graduation, Jacobs joined the electrical engineering faculty at MIT. While teaching, he also co-authored the textbook “Principles of Communication Engineering,” which was published in 1965 and still is in use today. In 1966, Jacobs became a professor of computer science and engineering at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), a position he held until 1972.

In addition to teaching, Jacobs also began researching the possibility of ubiquitous communications through digital wireless networks, which led him toward entrepreneurship. In 1968, he and fellow National Inventors Hall of Fame^® Inductee Andrew Viterbi were two of the three co-founders of Linkabit Corp., which developed satellite communications technologies such as Very Small Aperture Earth Terminals (VSATs) and the VideoCipher TV system. In 1980, Linkabit merged with M/A-COM Inc. and became M/A-COM Linkabit, where Jacobs served as executive vice president for five years. Reflecting on his work with the company, Jacobs said, “I liked doing the systems and the overview and the long-term thinking, but I also liked all the detail work, going through each aspect of the company, learning best how to do each job, and then bringing in very good people to take over that responsibility."

In 1985, Jacobs became co-founder, chairman and CEO of Qualcomm, which would grow into a global leader in telecommunications and semiconductors. Qualcomm’s first commercial product was OmniTRACS, a satellite communication and tracking system widely adopted by medium- and long-haul trucking companies and the military. Its success provided the cash flow to move on to cellular communications.

Jacobs believed it was possible to take an approach that had been used for secure military operations and adapt it for use in commercial cellphone networks. In 1989, he and his colleagues at Qualcomm made this idea a reality, pioneering the development of CDMA mobile wireless technology. The first CDMA communications system was installed and commercialized in Hong Kong in 1995, followed closely by South Korea and then the U.S.

Prior to the rise of 4G and 5G networks, CDMA was the foundational technology used in all third-generation cellular networks by more than a billion consumers across the globe to provide broadband internet access as well as voice.

Committed to philanthropy, Jacobs and his wife Joan Jacobs generously supported education in engineering and computer science, as well as the arts and healthcare. The UCSD Irwin and Joan Jacobs School of Engineering was named in their honor in 1997. In 2010, they signed the Giving Pledge, in which individuals commit to giving a majority of their wealth to charitable causes. In 2025, the University of California Presidential Medal — the university’s highest honor — was presented to Jacobs and his late wife, in recognition of their philanthropy and leadership.

Jacobs stepped down as CEO of Qualcomm in 2005, and as chairman of the board of directors in 2009. Today, Qualcomm remains one of the world’s leading companies in wireless communications and semiconductor technology, developing innovations that power smartphones, connected vehicles and countless other devices worldwide.

He has earned many awards and honors, including the National Medal of Technology in 1994, the IEEE Alexander Graham Bell Medal in 1995, the Marconi Prize in 2011 and the IEEE Medal of Honor in 2013.