LA JOLLA–A leadership gift of $1 million from San Diego philanthropists Joan and Irwin Jacobs will help UC San Diego Moores Cancer Center change how cancer is treated by supporting the Center for Personalized Cancer Therapy, a newly established center headed by Razelle Kurzrock, M.D. The UC San Diego Moores Cancer Center is one of just 41 National Cancer Institute-designated Comprehensive Cancer Centers in the United States, and the only one in the San Diego region.
“Thanks to the generosity of Joan and Irwin Jacobs, UC San Diego will strengthen our leading role in the future of cancer research,” said Chancellor Pradeep K. Khosla. “We are grateful for the Jacobses’ longstanding commitment to improving the lives of San Diegans, and for their confidence in UC San Diego’s ability to positively impact this critical area of health care.”
The $1 million contribution by the Jacobses is the most recent in a series of gifts from the local philanthropists that are helping to shape the impact of research at UC San Diego. In 2010, the couple pledged $75 million to help fund the state-of-the art Jacobs Medical Center, scheduled to open on the university’s East Campus in La Jolla in 2016. In 2003, they committed $110 million—the largest gift in the history of the university—to the Jacobs School of Engineering. They have also made significant charitable gifts to numerous scholarship and fellowship programs, the School of Medicine, the Division of Arts and Humanities, the School of International Relations and Pacific Studies, the Stuart Collection and the Rady School of Management, where they are recognized as founding donors.
Irwin Jacobs was a founding faculty member of UC San Diego, serving as a professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering from 1966 to 1972. Jacobs is Founding Chairman and CEO Emeritus of Qualcomm Incorporated, a San Diego-based Fortune 500 company. Both he and his wife, Joan, have been dedicated advisors as well as donors to the university, and each has served as Board Members of the UC San Diego Foundation. Joan was a co-founder of the Friends of the International Center and the Friends of the Stuart Collection, as well as a long-term board member of the La Jolla Playhouse.
