David Jacobs, PhD

Born: 1945

David Jacobs is a prominent member of the “middle wave” of CVD epidemiologists, becoming active in the field in the 1970s. He is a major designer of clinical and community trials and a leader in nutritional epidemiology with a focus on whole foods, disease, and health.

Jacobs received his doctorate in mathematical statistics from Johns Hopkins in 1971 and was immediately involved with trials at the Coordinating Center at the University of Maryland, then was invited to join the CVD epidemiology group at the Laboratory of Physiological Hygiene (later the Division of Epidemiology) at the University of Minnesota.

Jacobs has been centrally involved in major CVD epidemiological studies and trials, including the Coronary Drug Project, MRFIT, the Minnesota Heart Survey and Minnesota Heart Health Program, LRC Prevalence Study, CARDIA, MESA, and YALTA. His central research interests are in nutrition, whole grains, physical activity, oxidation and inflammation, diet and blood lipids, and in methodology: repeated measures regression analysis and the design and evaluation of community health education programs.

He is heavily involved in graduate education in Minnesota and in Norway and has become an intellectual leader in CVD prevention research and its applications. (HB)