Dean's message
Our Founding Family and the Value of Teamwork
May 2024
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Irwin and Joan Jacobs are our founding family, and I am profoundly grateful to them both. I will miss Joan deeply. Many of her incredible contributions to our engineering school, to UC San Diego and to the larger community are outlined in this story, which I encourage you to read.
In the next few paragraphs, I’d like to recount a story that Irwin shared at Joan’s public celebration of life ceremony. Irwin gave a bit of the backstory of how he and Joan decided to uproot their lives in Boston and move to La Jolla in 1966 so Irwin could join the faculty of UC San Diego.
As the story goes, Irwin and Joan initially decided that he would turn down the UC San Diego offer and remain on the MIT faculty. With that decision seemingly made, Joan returned to the search for a home for their growing family. A couple of days later, after Irwin returned from campus in a rainstorm, Joan described to him what sounded like a promising house for the family to consider. Irwin said, great, let’s go see it.
There was just one problem, Joan said, referring to the real estate listing: the house was in La Jolla.
And with that, their decision making process officially reopened, and ultimately they decided to make the jump to UC San Diego.
I love this story for many reasons, including the fact that it highlights the extent to which Joan and Irwin were – and still are, on so many levels – a team.
It is their teamwork that conjured their first philanthropic gifts to UC San Diego. It is their teamwork that led to a series of transformational gifts to our school of engineering at UC San Diego that are honored by the addition of their names to our school. It is their teamwork that helped accelerate our school to national and international prominence through foundational support for faculty and students. It is their teamwork that led to the beloved Jacobs Scholars and Fellows programs, which allow us to attract absolutely stellar cohorts of engineering and computer science undergraduates and graduate students. It is their teamwork that has allowed us to recruit, retain and accelerate our faculty through endowed chair professorships, collaborative research seed grants, and several other means. It is their teamwork that has empowered us to improve and expand our research and teaching infrastructure. And this is by no means a comprehensive list.
The greatest donors inspire others – and in this domain, Joan and Irwin are a winning team, yet again.
Joan and Irwin, you have inspired so many others to build on what you started. Your vision has not only been noticed, it is accelerated by those you inspire.
Two of the latest to be inspired by your vision and generosity are Aiiso Yufeng Li (Jeff) and his wife, Dongdong Li (Doreen). Jeff and Doreen recently made a transformational gift to the academic department that is home to our chemical and nano engineers. In recognition of this incredible gift, the department has a new name: the Aiiso Yufeng Li Family Department of Chemical and Nano Engineering. Thank you, Jeff and Doreen. Your generosity will be truly transformative. You will empower us to link chemical and nano engineering more strongly while enriching the student experience and accelerating research.
The chair of this department, Liangfang Zhang, has been key to our long-standing efforts to link chemical and nano engineering – the efforts that inspired Jeff and Doreen. I am honored to note that Liangfang holds the Joan and Irwin Jacobs Chancellor's Endowed Chair Professorship here at UC San Diego.
Joan was adamant that the community of philanthropy driving the Jacobs School forward continue to grow and expand. And it has, and it will.
Jeff and Dorren are one recent example. Gene Lay is another wonderful example. He is the naming donor for our bioengineering department, now named the Shu Chien-Gene Lay Department of Bioengineering. Franklin Antonio’s name graces our world-renowned building for collaborative engineering research. These are just a few examples of people in our community who have been inspired by – and are building on the vision created by – the magical teamwork of Joan and Irwin Jacobs.
Joan and Irwin, your teamwork strengthened our foundations, and on these foundations, we are building an ever more impactful school dedicated to accelerating engineering and computer science for the public good. On your foundations, we are building a school ever more worthy of the trust that is a prerequisite for philanthropic inspiration.
Our future is bright and varied – just as Joan always wanted.
Read our full May 2024 news email online here.
As always, I can be reached at DeanPisano@ucsd.edu
Sincerely,
Al
Albert ("Al") P. Pisano
Dean, UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering
Special Adviser to the Chancellor for Campus Strategic Initiatives