David Pokrass Jacobs

David P. Jacobs (born October 27, 1949) is an American computer scientist and mathematician known for his work in spectral graph theory, algorithm design, and  symbolic computation of nonassociative algebras. He is Professor Emeritus of Computer Science at Clemson University and has held various academic and research positions in the United States, Brazil, and Europe. He has published on theoretical computer science, discrete mathematics, and algebraic structures for five decades.

 Education 
Jacobs earned his Ph.D. in Mathematics from the University of Missouri in 1976, where he had previously completed an M.A. in 1972. He received his undergraduate degree in Mathematics from DePauw University in 1971. 

He later completed an M.S. in Information and Computer Science at the Georgia Institute of Technology in 1981.

 Career and research 
Jacobs began his academic career with teaching roles at the University of Missouri and Emory University before working in industry with Motorola, where he was part of a corporate group promoting software engineering practices. In 1986, he joined Clemson University, serving as Assistant Professor through to Professor of Computer Sciences until his retirement as Professor Emeritus in 2013.

His research centers on spectral graph theory, with contributions to eigenvalue location, Laplacian spectra, and graph algorithms, often in collaboration with Brazilian mathematician Vilmar Trevisan.

He was also co-principal investigator on NSF projects developing self-stabilizing algorithms and led work on nonassociative algebra computation through the NSF-funded Albert system. Jacobs held a Fulbright Scholarship in Brazil in 2006 and returned through the Science Without Borders program in 2014–2016.  Notable works include the co-authored book Locating Eigenvalues in Graphs – Algorithms and Applications (Springer, 2022) and Understanding Ada – A Software Engineering Approach.

 Selected publications 



References

Category:1949 births
Category:Living people
Category:American mathematicians