Israel (Jake) S. Jacobs of Niskayuna, N.Y., died peacefully on August 4 following a brief battle with cancer.

Jake was born in 1925 in Buffalo, N.Y. He graduated from college at the University of Michigan with a bachelor of science degree in physics and earned a Ph.D in physics from the University of Chicago. He also served in the U.S. Navy during World War II.

While at the University of Chicago he met and married Judy Jacobs, who would become his wife for 57 years. They moved to Niskayuna (Schenectady) in 1954. They made their first visit to the Vineyard in 1963 with close friends, staying at the Menemsha Inn in Chilmark. They returned to the Island in 1967 to Edgartown, and thereafter spent part of every summer and portions of the off-season every year through 2007. In 1974 they moved back to Chilmark into an upside-down house, Summersault‚ built by the late Herb Hancock to designs by architects Feibes and Schmitt of Schenectady, N.Y.

Jake’s professional career spanned 55 years at the General Electric Center for Research and Development in Niskayuna, NY, continuing, as did his visits to Chilmark, until May of this year.

His scientific research on magnetic materials defined the physics known as superparamagnetism and is routinely cited in textbooks. Jake’s work contributed to many technologies, including magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in health care, superconductors, and tools for removing sulfur from coal and the reducing of the resulting air pollution. Jake’s research in radar absorbing materials was applied in national defense. He published over 100 technical papers, five patents and gave over 100 technical talks in the U.S. and overseas. He was a fellow of the American Physical Society, the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers and the American Academy for the Advancement of Science, and served on many committees and editorial boards in the scientific community. In 1982 he was named a Coolidge Fellow of the G.E. Center for Research and Development, the highest award given by the center.

Jake used his prominence in science to support the development of other scientists. He recruited younger staff to G.E. in Schenectady, and he was a cofounder of the R& D Center’s Visiting Research Fellowship program to bring university scientists from around the world to work alongside staff in Niskayuna for up to a year. Jake was a visiting scientist at the Centre Nationale de la Recherché Scientifique in Grenoble, France, at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the National Magnet Laboratory and the Bordeaux University Center in France.

He also brought energy and leadership to support his local and religious community throughout his life, even to the very end. He sought to strengthen the network, education and development of girls and young women in the Capital District through Girls Inc., eventually becoming the treasurer of the gifts board of trustees. He was active in local Democratic politics and served as president of the Schenectady Jewish Community Council in the 1970s. He traveled to Eastern Europe and Russia to assist scientific exchanges and also advocated for better treatment of Jewish scientists in the Soviet Union, before the end of communism in that region.

Jake and Judy were active supporters of the cultural community in Schenectady. They led by example in many ways, most memorably in the later years of Judy’s life, when Jake would bring her to the same seats at the Union College classical music performances at Memorial Chapel.

He is survived by a daughter, Eve Jacobs-Carnahan of Montpelier, Vt.; a son, Mike Jacobs of Washington, D.C.; and grandchildren Rachel, Abigail, Sarah, Noah and Sophie.

In lieu of flowers, contributions in his memory may be made to Girls Inc. of the Greater Capital Region, 976 Albany street, Schenectady NY, 12307.