Joseph Jacobson, a native and resident of Newton, Massachusetts, is a tenured professor and head of the Molecular Machines group at the Center for Bits and Atoms at the MIT Media Lab. He is the founder of several companies including E Ink Corporation, Codon Devices, Inc., and Kovio, is on the scientific board of several more companies (such as Epitome Biosystems), and is one of the most prolific inventors of the day.
Jacobson received his bachelors in physics from Brown University, his Ph.D. in Physics from MIT, and did his post-doc at Stanford University 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).
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–based ink that can print on a flexible computer processor using an inkjet printer.[1] He received the 2000 Gutenberg prize. In 2001, he received a Discovery magazine award for technological innovation. In 2002, he received a National Inventors Hall of Fame Collegiate Inventors Award. His research has been the topic of over 250 newspaper and magazine articles.
Besides for his own research, Jacobson is a master teacher. Jacobson's protege, Brian Hubert, recipient of the 2001 Lemelson-MIT student prize for excellence in invention and innovation, commented "Without a doubt, most of my best and technically innovative designs have come about in the time since I met Joe Jacobson"
A major theme underlying Jacobson's research is (in his own words) to carry "out research that has the potential to have a positive impact on people's lives" and "to create an optimally interesting world".