Joseph Jacobson (born June 28, 1965 in

Newton, Massachusetts Newton is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. It is located roughly west of Downtown Boston, and comprises a patchwork of thirteen villages. The city borders Boston to the northeast and southeast (via the neighborhoods of ...

), is a tenured professor and head of the Molecular Machines group at the Center for Bits and Atoms at the

MIT Media Lab The MIT Media Lab is a research laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, growing out of MIT's Architecture Machine Group in the MIT School of Architecture and Planning, School of Architecture. Its research does not restrict to fi ...

, and is one of the inventors of microencapsulated electrophoretic display (known as

E Ink E Ink (electronic ink) is a brand of electronic paper (e-paper) display technology commercialized by the E Ink Corporation, which was co-founded in 1997 by MIT undergraduates JD Albert and Barrett Comiskey, MIT Media Lab professor Joseph Jacobs ...

) commonly used in electronic devices such as

e-readers An e-reader, also called an e reader or e device, is a Mobile computing, mobile electronic device that is designed primarily for the purpose of reading digital e-books and Periodical literature, periodicals. Any device that can display text on ...

. He is the founder of several companies including E Ink Corporation, Gen9, Inc., and Kovio, and serves on the scientific board of several more companies (such as Epitome Biosystems).

Education and career

Jacobson received an Sc.B. in

physics Physics is the scientific study of matter, its Elementary particle, fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge whi ...

Brown University Brown University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Providence, Rhode Island, United States. It is the List of colonial colleges, seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the US, founded in 1764 as the ' ...

and a Ph.D. in physics at the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a Private university, private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of moder ...

. He was a postdoctoral research associate at

Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

in experimental and theoretical nonlinear non-local quantum systems. While at Stanford, he set the world record for the shortest pulse ever generated by a laser (in optical cycles). Jacobson first had the idea for the e-book in 1993, while working on his

postdoctoral research A postdoctoral fellow, postdoctoral researcher, or simply postdoc, is a person professionally conducting research after the completion of their doctoral studies (typically a PhD). Postdocs most commonly, but not always, have a temporary acade ...

quantum mechanics Quantum mechanics is the fundamental physical Scientific theory, theory that describes the behavior of matter and of light; its unusual characteristics typically occur at and below the scale of atoms. Reprinted, Addison-Wesley, 1989, It is ...

. In 1997, Jacobson along with JD Albert, Barrett Comiskey, Russ Wilcox and Jerome Rubin founded E Ink Corporation. In 1999, MIT's Technology Review named Jacobson as one of the TR100, one of the most influential inventors under the age of 35. He invented

nanoparticle A nanoparticle or ultrafine particle is a particle of matter 1 to 100 nanometres (nm) in diameter. The term is sometimes used for larger particles, up to 500 nm, or fibers and tubes that are less than 100 nm in only two directions. At ...

–based ink that can print on a flexible computer processor using an inkjet printer. He was awarded the Gutenberg Prize of the International Gutenberg Society and the City of Mainz in 2000. In 2001, he received a Discovery magazine award for technological innovation. In 2002, he received a

National Inventors Hall of Fame The National Inventors Hall of Fame (NIHF) is an American not-for-profit organization, founded in 1973, which recognizes individual engineers and inventors who hold a US patent of significant technology. Besides the Hall of Fame, it also operate ...

Collegiate Inventors Award. In 2013 Jacobson received the

Wilhelm Exner Medal The Wilhelm Exner Medal has been awarded by the Austrian Industry Association, (ÖGV), for excellence in research and science since 1921. The medal is dedicated to Wilhelm Exner (1840–1931), former president of the Association, who initialize ...

. On 5 May 2016, Jacobson was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame for his work in developing E Ink.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jacobson, Joseph 1965 births 21st-century American physicists Brown University alumni Stanford University people MIT School of Architecture and Planning faculty Living people Date of birth missing (living people) MIT Media Lab people Massachusetts Institute of Technology School of Science alumni