Education

Jacobsen attended New York University for his undergraduate studies and the University of California at Berkeley for graduate school, earning his Doctor of Philosophy in 1986 under the tutelage of Robert G. Bergman.

Career

He is a prominent figure in the field of organic chemistry and is best known for the development of the Jacobsen epoxidation and other work in selective catalysis. He subsequently joined the laboratory of Barry Sharpless, then of Massachusetts Institute of Technology, as an National Institutes of Health Postdoctoral Fellow. He was a faculty member at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign before relocating to Harvard in 1993.

Jacobsen has developed catalysts for asymmetric epoxidation, hydrolytic kinetic resolution and desymmetrization of epoxides, asymmetric pericyclic reactions, and asymmetric additions to imines.

Achievements

• Bristol-DTC-Syngenta Award (2013)
  
  Remsen Award (2013)
  
  Fannie–Cox Teaching Award, Harvard University (2012)
  
  Chirality Medal (2012)
  
  Nagoya Gold Medal Prize (2011)
  
  GlaxoSmithKline Scholar Award (2011)
  
  Kosolapoff Award, Auburn Section American College of Surgeons (2011)
  
  The Ryoji Noyori Prize (2011)
  
  Janssen Pharmaceutica Prize for Creativity in Organic Synthesis(2010)
  
  Yamada–Koga Prize
  
  election to the National Academy of Sciences (2008)
  
  American College of Surgeons hockey club Brown Award for Synthetic Methods (2008)
  
  Alan R. Day Award (2007)
  
  Mitsui Catalysis Award (2005)
  
  election to the American Academy of Arts & Sciences (2004)
  
  Anime International Company Chemical Pioneer Award (2004)
  
  Phi Beta Kappa Teaching Prize (2003)
  
  National Institutes of Health Merit Award (2002)
  
  American College of Surgeons Award for Creativity in Synthetic Organic Chemistry (2001)
  
  Baekeland Medal (1999)
  
  Piero–Pino Prize (1999)
  
  Van"t Hoff Prize (1998)
  
  Thieme- International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry Prize in Synthetic Organic Chemistry (1996)
  
  Fluka "Reagent of the Year" Prize (1994)
  
  American College of Surgeons Cope Scholar Award (1993)
  
  Zeneca Chemistry Award (1993)
  
  Pfizer Young Faculty Award for Synthetic Organic Chemistry (1993)
  
  Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Fellowship (1992)
  
  Camille and Henry Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award (1992)
  
  Packard Fellowship (1991)
  
  National Science Foundation Presidential Young Investigator Award (1990).