Joshua Jacobs

Joshua Jacobs is an Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering at Columbia University, leading the Jacobs Lab. His research focuses on the neural basis of human spatial navigation and memory using direct brain recordings from epilepsy patients. Collaborations include Columbia University Medical Center, University of Pennsylvania, and others. He holds affiliations with Columbia’s Neurobiology and Behavior Doctoral Program, Translational Neuroscience Initiative, and Data Science Institute.

Education: B.S. and M.S. in Computer Science (MIT, 2001–2002), Ph.D. in Neuroscience (University of Pennsylvania, 2008). Postdoctoral research at UPenn (2009–2010). Professional experience includes Assistant Professor roles at Drexel University (2010–2014) and Columbia (2015–present).

Research interests include human memory mechanisms, electrophysiological recordings, brain stimulation, and translational applications for Alzheimer’s therapy. Awards include the Winegrad Award for his Ph.D. dissertation. Active grants include NIH (R01-MH104606) and DARPA RAM program funding.

Lab members include postdoctoral fellows (e.g., Thomas Donoghue, Luca Kolibius) and graduate students (e.g., Tamara Gedankien, Erfan Zabeh). Ongoing work explores cross-species neural coding comparisons and reward-based neural modulation.