Jacobs leads the Cal Band at the Berkeley Charter Gala. Photo: Kelley L. Cox
Paul Jacobs ’84, M.S. ’86, Ph.D. ’89 was a techie as a toddler. “His grandfather came out to visit and wanted to watch the television,” recalls Jacobs’s father, Irwin, “but we had unplugged the TV to discourage that. So Paul crawled under the TV and re-plugged it in.” An entrepreneurial design geek as a teen, Jacobs and a friend set up an assembly operation to create skateboards, then sold them to local kids.
Those early predilections took Jacobs down a path that, among numerous achievements, garnered him Berkeley’s 2017 Alumnus of the Year Award. The executive chairman and board chairman of Qualcomm Incorporated, Jacobs spearheaded the company’s efforts to develop and commercialize mobile technology breakthroughs, including the first smartphone based on Palm OS®; inclusion of GPS capabilities in mobile phones; and the system that enables over-the-air downloading of apps. There’s no doubt that his innovative thinking — especially regarding the holistic intersection of design and technology — began to crystallize at Cal.
“Paul’s always thinking about stretching the boundary of the things that we can do and building on ideas,” says William Bell ’84, M.S. ’86, Jacobs’s friend since freshman year and now a principal engineer at Qualcomm. The two took engineering classes together and traveled to Europe, including an inspiring and enlightening trip to the British Museum. “To this day, he has a very strong appreciation for art and even architectural design,” says Bell. “Paul demonstrates how creativity can be a significant part of engineering.”
Dean S. Shankar Sastry M.S. ’79, M.A. ’80, Ph.D. ’81 met Jacobs when he and a fellow undergraduate helped Sastry — then an engineering professor — start his robotics lab. Several years later, when Jacobs gave a keynote speech as the College of Engineering’s alumnus of the year, Sastry saw further evidence of his unique, hands-on commitment to design innovation. Jacobs didn’t just come prepared with slides; he brought six different phone prototypes made by Qualcomm engineers to show the graduating students.
“From a very early time,” says Sastry, “he has exemplified some of the most amazing values that we believe in our Golden Bears. Even as he set up a robotics lab as an undergraduate — he set it up in the public interest. He has always been interested in giving back to the institution that gave him his education.”
In fact, Jacobs provided significant funding for Jacobs Hall, a new home for the Jacobs Institute for Design Innovation. This state- of-the-art maker space enables students to turn their creative ideas into real- world solutions for health, energy, and communications needs.
“I think the ultimate compliment,” says Sastry, “is that the students really feel that Jacobs Hall belongs to them.”
Other Leading Lights
Co-sponsored by the UC Berkeley Foundation and the Cal Alumni Association, the 2017 Achievement Awards celebrate forward-thinking business leaders, gifted faculty, and dedicated and promising alumni. For information, visit awards.berkeley.edu.
Berkeley Founders Award — Ira Hirschfield
Fiat Lux Faculty Award — Edward E. Penhoet
Campanile Excellence in Achievement Awards — Vanessa Morrison ’90, Margaret Murnane Ph.D. ’89, and James Schamus ’82, M.A. ’87, Ph.D. ’03
Mark Bingham Awards for Excellence in Achievement by Young Alumni — Michael Gilroy ’09 and Jonathan Stein M.P.P./J.D. ’13
