100 years of innovation: How San Diego became a hub for life-changing breakthroughs
Sep 29, 2025 - Mira Paranjape
Over more than a century, San Diego has proudly built a legacy of groundbreaking innovation across key industries like life sciences, aerospace and defense, and cleantech. Today, we’re proud to be recognized among the top three life sciences hubs in the U.S., one of the top U.S. cities for tech talent, and one of the world’s top 10 science and technology clusters.
From the founding of our region’s most beloved institutions like General Atomics and the Salk Institute, to #SDlifechanging discoveries in life sciences, learn how San Diego has grown into a global leader in innovation.
1900-1969: Building the foundation for innovation
1917: Naval Air Station North Island is established on Coronado
1924: Scripps Memorial Hospital and Scripps Metabolic Clinic are founded
1927: Solar Turbines is founded in San Diego as an aircraft company
1951: Cubic Corporation begins operations in Point Loma as an electronics company
1955: General Atomics is founded in San Diego as a division of General Dynamics
1960: UC San Diego is founded
1960: Jonas Salk, developer of the polio vaccine, establishes the Salk Institute for Biological Studies
1960: NASSCO begins designing and building ships in San Diego
1969: Solar Turbines crafts electric generators for the Apollo 12 mission to the moon
1970-1999: Scientific breakthroughs in our own backyard
1975: Renato Dulbecco receives a Nobel Prize for his cancer and virus research at the Salk Institute
1976: The La Jolla Cancer Research Foundation—now Sanford Burnham Prebys—is founded
1978: Hybritech, San Diego’s first biotechnology company, is founded
1983: Inder Verma develops genetically engineered viruses for gene therapy use at the Salk Institute
1984: George Glenne and Caine Wong discover the primary protein in Alzheimer’s plaques at UC San Diego School of Medicine
1985: Qualcomm is founded
1986: Lilly acquires Hybritech for $400 million
1986: Viasat is founded in Carlsbad
1994: General Atomics flies the first Predator uncrewed aerial vehicle
1994: Sequenom—now Labcorp—is founded to develop prenatal genetic testing
1997: Agouron Pharmaceuticals receives FDA approval for San Diego’s first biotech product, the AIDS treatment Viracept
1998: General Dynamics acquires NASSCO, San Diego’s largest shipbuilding company
1998: Illumina is founded, creating genetic sequencing, genotyping, and proteomics tools
1999: The Genomics Institute of the Novartis Research Foundation is founded
1999: Dexcom is founded
1999: Pfizer acquires Agouron Pharmaceuticals, establishing presence in San Diego
2000-2019: Key companies call San Diego home
2000: UC San Diego graduate J. Craig Venter leads the first sequencing of the human genome
2004: Sony Electronics relocates its North America HQ from New Jersey to San Diego
2005: Northrop Grumman opens its San Diego HQ
2010: The Qualcomm Snapdragon processor powers the first-ever 4G smartphone available in the U.S.
2013: J. Craig Venter and Peter Diamandis launch Human Longevity, a biotech company aimed to predict and prevent genetic diseases
2013: Dutch semiconductor tech company ASML acquires San Diego-based Cymer
2016: Scripps Research wins $120 million from NIH to conduct a large-scale genomics study (All of Us) with more than 1 million participants
2018: Dexcom launches the first glucose monitoring system that doesn’t require drawing blood
2018: Rady Children’s Institute for Genomic Medicine sets a Guinness World Record for Fastest Genetic Diagnosis by sequencing a whole genome in 19.5 hours
2020-2025: Life-saving solutions in changing times
2020: Pfizer, BioNTech develop one of the first COVID-19 vaccines
2020: Thermo Fisher Scientific ships the first COVID-19 PCR testing kits
2020: BD wins FDA approval of its 15-minute, hand-held COVID-19 test
2020: Sanford Burnham Prebys wins $10 million to test broad-spectrum antivirals to combat COVID-19
2020: Quidel is granted FDA emergency-use status for the first COVID-19 antigen test
2021: Scripps Research conducts a successful clinical trial of its novel HIV vaccine
2021: Scripps Research’s Ardem Patapoutian wins a Nobel Prize for his discoveries of receptors for temperature and touch
2022: Scripps Research’s K. Barry Sharpless wins a Nobel Prize for the development of click chemistry and biorthogonal chemistry
2022: Apple significantly expands its presence in San Diego by acquiring the 67.5-acre Rancho Vista Corporate Center in Rancho Bernardo for $445 million
2025: San Diego State University joins UC San Diego in receiving R1 status as a top research university
There are countless other local companies and leaders who have helped create San Diego’s legacy of innovation. Let us know which milestones and moments you would add to the list!
