Irwin M. Jacobs

From Grokipedia

Irwin Mark Jacobs (born October 18, 1933) is an American electrical engineer and entrepreneur best known as the co-founder of Qualcomm Incorporated, a company that developed code-division multiple access (CDMA) technology fundamental to modern cellular networks. Jacobs earned a B.S. in electrical engineering from Cornell University in 1956, followed by an S.M. in 1957 and Sc.D. in 1959 from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where his doctoral work focused on communication theory. After early roles at MITRE Corporation and Caltech's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, he joined UC San Diego as a professor of electrical engineering in 1966, contributing to digital signal processing and error-correcting codes. In 1985, Jacobs co-founded Qualcomm with Andrew Viterbi and others, initially developing satellite-based communications before pivoting to CDMA, a spread-spectrum technique that enabled efficient spectrum use and higher data rates in mobile telephony, underpinning 3G and later standards. As CEO until 2005, he led the firm's growth into semiconductors and wireless infrastructure, amassing a fortune he has since directed toward philanthropy, including major gifts to UC San Diego for health and science initiatives alongside his wife Joan. Jacobs has received the National Medal of Technology and other honors for advancing wireless innovation.

In brief

Irwin Jacobs taught engineering before he sold it. Qualcomm, born in San Diego, turned a radio idea into the quiet infrastructure of modern mobile life.

He has given the later chapters to philanthropy and the Salk Institute. The phones changed. The founder’s habit — explain the math, then ship it — did not.