Qualcomm Incorporated has appointed Susan Hockfield to its Board of Directors. Dr. Hockfield’s career spans more than 30 years as a leader in biomedical science research, and she served as president of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) until July 2012, where she also holds a faculty appointment as professor of neuroscience.

“We are fortunate to welcome Dr. Hockfield as a member of Qualcomm’s Board of Directors,” said Dr. Paul E. Jacobs, chairman and CEO of Qualcomm. “Her leadership experience in exploring new horizons in biomedical and energy research adds a unique perspective to our Board and complements Qualcomm’s efforts to apply wireless technologies in fields such as healthcare and education.”

Dr. Hockfield has distinguished herself both as a scientist and a leader of one of the world’s premier science and engineering institutions. Following her university studies, Dr. Hockfield was a National Institutes of Health (NIH) postdoctoral fellow at the University of California at San Francisco, and then a member of the scientific staff of the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. Joining the faculty of Yale University in 1985, Dr. Hockfield’s research focused on the development of the brain and on glioma, a deadly form of brain cancer, and pioneered the use of monoclonal antibody technology in brain research. At Yale, Dr. Hockfield emerged as a strong, innovative university leader, first as dean of its Graduate School of Arts and Sciences and later as provost, Yale’s chief academic and administrative officer.

From December 2004 until July 2012, Dr. Hockfield served as the 16th president of MIT. The first woman and the first life scientist to lead MIT, Dr. Hockfield helped the university break new ground across a range of disciplines. Under her leadership, the university launched the MIT Energy Initiative in 2006, known as MITEI (“mighty”), a $350 million effort to accelerate research, policy and education to achieve a clean energy future.