Since its inception 18 years ago, the Jacobs Scholarships and Fellowships in Engineering have fueled the educations and aspirations of more than 500 Cornell Engineering students—through nearly 1,300 awards.
Established in 2006 with a $30 million commitment to endow scholarships and fellowships in Cornell’s College of Engineering, the Irwin M. and Joan K. Jacobs Scholars and Fellows programs are intended to bolster recruitment of the most outstanding students to Cornell. The programs annually support upwards of 80 undergraduate Jacobs Scholars in the College and approximately 15 Jacobs Fellows in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering.
A rich diversity of perspectives and talents: Jacobs Scholars
The Joan and Irwin Jacobs Scholarships are awarded to students with financial need who are determined to apply their engineering education for the betterment of the world around them.
Through their diverse backgrounds, interests, and talents, the Jacobs Scholars and Fellows bring vital energy to the college and the campus—and, after graduation, to their respective fields. Many of these Cornell engineers have gone on to assume leading roles in industry and academia.
The Jacobs Scholarship has an amplifying effect—empowering these students to become Cornell engineers in the best possible sense. The recipients are empathetic, motivated, collegial, and prepared to become leaders in devising human-centered solutions.
During his undergraduate years at Cornell, Jacobs Scholar Michael Charles ’16 wasn’t entirely sure where his career would take him. He pursued a range of research and experiential learning opportunities in the College of Engineering and the American Indian and Indigenous Studies program, then completed his master’s and PhD at Ohio State. Still, he remained unsure regarding how best to apply his chemical engineering degrees in a way that would allow him to support underrepresented communities.
Now, eight years post-graduation, he has landed somewhere familiar—back at Cornell.
Michael was hired as an assistant professor in biological and environmental engineering as part of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences’ faculty cohort initiative to hire scholars whose work addresses systemic challenges facing marginalized communities. Three hundred and eighty-one people applied for the six faculty cohort initiative positions.
“I’ve always been interested in finding ways to use my degree and experiences to support the Indigenous community,” says Michael, who is a citizen of the Navajo Nation. “That was a huge part of my undergraduate journey here at Cornell.”
His faculty role at Cornell allows him to conduct significant transdisciplinary research. Michael’s research addresses sustainable design using computational methods. He is committed to working with communities of practice (non-academic communities) to explore how computational results can lead to transformed behavior, practice, and policy. His goal is to understand how landscapes can help address complex sustainability challenges and promote human well-being—particularly for Indigenous communities.
“What really excites me is seeing academia open up beyond its silos,” Michael says. “I think my appointment affirmed that the research and interests I have are also important to Cornell,” he notes.
Excellence in teaching and research: Jacobs Fellows
By supporting graduate education in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, the Jacobs Fellowships in Engineering have allowed ECE to further build its excellence in teaching and research; advance the next generation of engineers; and drive the leading edge of technology.
Jacobs Fellow Yücel Altuğ MS ’11, PhD ’13 is at the forefront of science to advance cell-free DNA applications. Altuğ is a data scientist at Natera, a molecular diagnostic company that is leading the charge to make cell-free DNA a part of standard health care.
Cell-free DNA, which is typically taken from prenatal blood, is used to find genetic markers for a variety of diseases. The goal is to detect these diseases earlier, allowing treatment to start sooner.
Thanks to the Jacobs, we are ‘in the game’ in attracting the very best PhD students from across the country and internationally to Cornell.
The work at Natera was quite a shift for Altuğ, who shares that he hadn’t taken a biology lesson since high school. But his expertise in statistical modeling has made him a good fit for this work.
“The rigorous mathematical and engineering education I got at Cornell was—and still is—instrumental,” says Altuğ, who won the ECE Director’s PhD Thesis Research Award during his time at Cornell.
Altuğ hopes to help apply cell-free DNA testing to address broader health concerns, including cancer. He is currently working on a statistical model for Natera’s oncology product.
In 2015, Irwin ’54 and Joan Jacobs ’54 were awarded the Andrew Carnegie Medal of Philanthropy, for dedicating their private wealth to the public good. Read the story.
Read this Cornell Chronicle tribute to Joan Klein Jacobs ’54, who died on May 6, 2024.
