Dr. Irwin Jacobs was given the Institute’s greatest recognition at an anniversary ceremony marking 20 years of Qualcomm activities in Israel

Dr. Irwin Jacobs, Co-Founder, Chairman and CEO Emeritus of Qualcomm, received has been awarded the Technion Medal, the greatest recognition by the Institute awarded only every 3 to 5 years. He received the medal during a festive event in Haifa, marking 20 years of Qualcomm activities in Israel.

Technion President, Professor Peretz Lavie, spoke about the long-standing friendship and generous philanthropic activities of Dr. Jacobs and his wife Joan with the Technion. Technion’s Graduate School is named for them, as is the Center for Communications and Information Technologies. They have recently donated $133 million to the Jacobs Technion-Cornell Innovation Institute in New York City.

The Technion President thanked Dr. Jacobs, “Thank you so very much for all you have done for Technion, engineering, the field of telecom, academia, Israel, and future scientists – you are truly a great leader, a model citizen, and a real ‘mench.’”

Dr. Jacobs responded to the words of gratitude, saying that it is not Technion that need thank him but he who needs to thank the Technion, “Many of Qualcomm’s employees are Technion graduates,” he said. “The company would not have attained many of its achievements if it hadn’t been for its brilliant employees.”