San Diego-based philanthropists Joan and Irwin Jacobs honored with UC Presidential Medals

By the UC San Diego Newsroom

The UC Presidential Medal, the University of California’s highest honor, will be presented to San Diego-based philanthropist and business leader Irwin Jacobs, and in honor of his late wife and community leader, Joan, in recognition of their positive impact in education, health care, technology, the arts and more. UC President Michael V. Drake, M.D., will present the medals at the UC San Diego Chancellor’s Medal Awards in March 2025.

“I’m thrilled to present the University of California’s highest honor to UC San Diego founding professor Irwin Jacobs and his late wife, Joan Jacobs,” said President Drake. “Through teaching, public service and philanthropy, they have enriched the lives of countless students, faculty, staff and patients. Their transformative generosity and care for the community exemplify the very best of the University and our mission to expand knowledge, increase opportunity and ensure a healthier future for California and the world.”

Irwin Jacobs was a founding professor of UC San Diego, serving on the faculty from 1966 to 1972. He went on to co-found Linkabit and later Qualcomm, where he served as founding chairman and CEO. Qualcomm pioneered the Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) wireless technology, for a time the world’s fastest-growing, most-advanced voice and data wireless communications technology. 

Joan, who died earlier this year, will be honored posthumously for her leadership, dedication and generosity to enriching the lives of others with excellent health care, arts, culture and education.

Thanks to the couple’s support and visionary generosity, UC San Diego has grown to become one of the top research universities in the world, named the top “Golden Age” university founded between 1945 and 1966, by Times Higher Education.

“Joan and Irwin Jacobs have left an indelible imprint on UC San Diego, helping it to grow and expand into the world-class research university it is today,” said Pradeep K. Khosla, UC San Diego Chancellor and the Joan and Irwin Jacobs Chancellor’s Endowed Chair. “The UC Presidential Medal is a prestigious, well-deserved honor that celebrates the remarkable impact the couple has made on our campus, San Diego, the State of California and indeed, the world.”

Over the years, Joan and Irwin also have received multiple awards from UC San Diego for their generosity and dedication to the campus. They received the Chancellor’s Medal in 2010, which is one of the highest honors given by UC San Diego for exceptional service in support of the university’s mission. They were the first to receive the campus’s Lifetime Legacy Award, in 2020.

Both Joan and Irwin served as trustees of the UC San Diego Foundation, as well as Honorary Chairs for the Campaign for UC San Diego, which raised a record-breaking $3 billion in private support for the university.

Seeking to enrich the community, the Jacobs also provided significant support to organizations including the Jacobs & Cushman San Diego Food Bank, San Diego Symphony, and performing arts venues such as the Rady Shell at Jacobs Park and the Joan and Irwin Jacobs Performing Arts Center at Liberty Station. They also provided support to the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) to establish two endowed chairs with the goal of furthering research into head and neck cancer.

A legacy of generosity

Over the past 50 years, the Jacobs have supported UC San Diego with more than $460 million in gifts across diverse disciplines — ranging from engineering to healthcare to the arts, and more.

In 1997, they made a transformative gift to name the Irwin and Joan Jacobs School of Engineering, followed by an additional gift — the largest in UC San Diego’s history at that point — to support scholarships, fellowships and faculty at the school. Thanks to their foundational support, the Jacobs School of Engineering has grown and expanded its reach, becoming one of the most prestigious engineering schools in the nation. Research and innovation from the Jacobs School of Engineering has benefited countless people throughout the world over the decades.

The Jacobs’ dedication to support healthcare and medical advancements at UC San Diego is unmatched. With the goal of enhancing healthcare for patients in the region, Joan and Irwin Jacobs donated the largest gift in the history of UC San Diego Health to establish the 245-bed Jacobs Medical Center, which opened in 2016. More than 60,000 patients have been cared for within the facility through 2023.

With a great passion for the arts, Joan also established the Joan Klein Jacobs Healing Arts Collection at Jacobs Medical Center. The art collection in and around the hospital was envisioned by Joan to introduce art and healing throughout the facility.

Advancing their mission to improve healthcare even further, the Jacobs made a groundbreaking gift to activate the Center for Health Innovation at UC San Diego Health. The patient care “mission control center” in Jacobs Medical Center serves as a hyper-connected hub to monitor patient health and safety with the goal of developing AI algorithms and models that improve personalized treatment, health equity and patient experience. The couple also established the Jacobs Retina Center at Shiley Eye Institute to drive research to find solutions for retina disorders that affect patients of all ages.

Joan and Irwin Jacobs have also been longtime supporters of the UC San Diego School of Global Policy and Strategy. In 2021, they made a high-impact gift to the school’s Center on Global Transformation, where researchers are studying how global economic and political structures are changing and how advances in science and technology improve policy and alter the distribution of wealth around the world. As part of their gift, the center was renamed in honor of Peter F. Cowhey, who served as dean of the School of Global Policy and Strategy for nearly two decades.

The couple also played a leadership role in establishing UC San Diego as an arts destination, with longstanding support for the Stuart Collection at UC San Diego, ArtPower and the campus-based La Jolla Playhouse, in addition to the establishment of the art collection at Jacobs Medical Center.

Supporting UC San Diego students – both undergraduates and graduate students — has always been a key priority for Joan and Irwin Jacobs. They supported fellowships and scholarships in the UC San Diego School of Medicine to help train the health care leaders of tomorrow, as well as established the Jacobs School Scholars and Fellows Program in the Jacobs School of Engineering.

Understanding the power of endowed chair positions to drive innovative research and attract and retain top minds at UC San Diego, the Jacobs have also established a record-breaking number of endowed faculty chairs on campus, including several at the Jacobs School of Engineering, the Rady School of Management and in UC San Diego Health Sciences.

In honor of Joan’s memory, Irwin Jacobs recently established three endowed chairs in Health Sciences, including the Joan Klein Jacobs Endowed Chair in Surgery, the Joan Klein Jacobs Endowed Chair in Cardiology and the Joan Klein Jacobs Endowed Chair in Neurology.

The UC Presidential Medal was established in 1997 by then-UC president Richard C. Atkinson to recognize extraordinary contributions to the University of California or the community of learning.