Dr. Eric Niels Jacobsen stands as a preeminent figure in modern organic chemistry renowned for his transformative contributions to catalytic methodology. He currently holds the distinguished position of Sheldon Emery Professor of Chemistry at Harvard University a role he has occupied since 2001 following his appointment as full professor in 1993. Prior to his tenure at Harvard Jacobsen served on the faculty at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign from 1988 to 1993 where he was rapidly promoted from Assistant to Associate Professor. His academic journey began with undergraduate studies at New York University continued with doctoral research at the University of California Berkeley under Robert G. Bergman and included postdoctoral work at MIT with Nobel laureate Karl Barry Sharpless. Jacobsen's leadership in the field was further demonstrated through his service as Chair of Harvard's Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology from 2010 to 2015.
Jacobsen's groundbreaking research has fundamentally reshaped the landscape of asymmetric catalysis most notably through his 1990 discovery of the first practical method for asymmetric epoxidation of unfunctionalized olefins which solved a longstanding challenge in synthetic chemistry. His development of chiral manganese-salen catalysts provided reliable high-yielding access to enantiomerically enriched epoxides a transformation now widely employed across academic and industrial settings for pharmaceutical synthesis. The Jacobsen epoxidation along with his cobalt-catalyzed hydrolytic kinetic resolution of terminal epoxides represents one of the most extensively utilized methods for preparing chiral building blocks with applications scaling to multi-ton industrial production worldwide. His laboratory has also pioneered chromium-Schiff base complexes for enantioselective pericyclic reactions and innovative organic hydrogen bond-donor catalysts that activate neutral and cationic electrophiles through anion binding. These catalytic systems have enabled the efficient synthesis of complex natural products and pharmaceutical agents while establishing fundamental principles for catalyst design that continue to guide the field.
Beyond his methodological contributions Jacobsen has profoundly influenced the discipline through rigorous mechanistic investigations that have elucidated electronic tuning of selectivity cooperative bimetallic catalysis and hydrogen-bond donor asymmetric catalysis. His research group consistently comprising 20-25 graduate students and postdoctoral scholars remains at the forefront of discovering new catalytic transformations with practical utility in chemical synthesis. Jacobsen's work has garnered numerous prestigious accolades including the ACS Arthur C. Cope Award the Janssen Prize and election to the National Academy of Sciences cementing his status as a leader in chemical sciences. He maintains active advisory roles with major pharmaceutical companies including Merck and has contributed to shaping industrial synthesis through his patented catalytic technologies. Currently directing a vibrant research program at Harvard Jacobsen continues to explore the frontiers of catalytic reaction discovery while training the next generation of synthetic chemists who carry forward his legacy of innovation in organic methodology.
