Jacobs serves as a Team Lead for NOAA’s Ecological Forecasting Roadmap, Pathogens Team. The Pathogens Team works with federal, state, and academic partners to develop predictive tools based on NOAA observational and modeled data to assist the states and industry in ensuring safe seafood products.
Jacobs received his B.A. from St. Mary’s College of Maryland in 1993, M.S. in Fisheries from the University of Maryland in 1998, and Ph.D. in Fisheries from the University of Maryland in 2007. His early work focused on disease ecology in finfish, concentrating mainly on bacterial disease in important commercial species of Chesapeake Bay. Over the past 10 years, his focus has shifted primarily to the ecology of pathogenic bacteria in the estuarine/marine environment, and the development of predictive tools to provide early warning. John is also active in student development and serves as Adjunct faculty at the University of Maryland, Center for Environmental Science, and the University of Maryland Eastern Shore.