Credit:
Courtesy of Eric Jacobsen
The American Chemical Society Texas A&M Local Section has named Eric Jacobsen the 2026 F. A. Cotton Medal for Excellence in Chemical Research winner, an award cosponsored with the Texas A&M University Department of Chemistry. Jacobsen, the Sheldon Emery Professor of Chemistry at Harvard University, is being recognized for excellence in chemical research, specifically as a leading researcher in organic chemistry.
The Jacobsen group is working to discover and analyze selective catalytic reactions. Some of these catalysts have been successfully applied in academia and industry, such as metal-salen complexes for asymmetric epoxidation, conjugate additions, and hydrolytic kinetic resolution of epoxides; chromium–Schiff base complexes for enantioselective pericyclic reactions; and organic hydrogen-bond-donor catalysts for activation of neutral and ionic electrophiles.
Jacobsen began his independent career at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in 1988. He became a full professor at Harvard University in 1993 and served as the chair of the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology from 2010 to 2015. He became associate editor for the Journal of the American Chemical Society in 2024.
Jacobsen will receive the medal during the F. A. Cotton Medal award symposium at Texas A&M University on April 24, where he will deliver a lecture titled “Studies in Selective Catalysis.” Other lectures at the event will include those from Zachary Wickens and Noah Burns.
2026 American Chemical Society
