Jean Paul Jacob

Involved in IBM steel mills projects that developed high-level simulations for NASA, Jacob also created the first IBM Scientific Center of South America in Brazil and the Institute for Software Engineering. A Brazilian electronic engineer, researcher, and professor, he received his electronic engineering degree from the Instituto Tecnológico de Aeronáutica, in Brazil, and his MS and PhD degrees in Mathematics and Engineering from the University of California, at Berkeley. In 1962 he worked at the IBM Nordic Laboratory, in Stockholm, and returned in 1963 to the United States, where he was assigned to the San José IBM Research Laboratory in California. He was then involved in IBM steel mills projects which developed high-level simulations for NASA.

Jacob resumed his academic career when he returned to Brazil in 1969, where he worked for the University of São Paulo (USP), the Instituto Tecnológico de Aeronáutica (ITA), and the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), where he created the Systems Department. In 1980 he created in Brazil the first IBM Scientific Center of South America, as well as the Institute for Software Engineering. For many years he served as the IBM research manager at the Almaden IBM Research Center, in California.

He retired from IBM in October 2002, but returned as a supplemental employee, remaining chair of Almaden's University Relations Committee and IBM's Campus Relationship Manager for UC-Berkeley, where he had also been a Faculty in Residence in the Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Department from 1971. He was awarded the University of California Research Leadership Award in 2003 for his 40 years of work and research development in its departments.

Jacob's research interests included software engineering, artificial intelligence, multimedia, personal digital assistants, and decision-support systems. He was a member of the IBM Academy of Technology, whose membership consisted of the top technical leaders from around the world working in research, hardware and software development, manufacturing, applications, and services. He published several technical papers — mostly in mathematical journals — and co-authored a technical book on systems and control theory published by Japan's Ministry of International Trade and Industry, which was reorganized in 2001 as the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry.