Joseph J. Jacobs

American chemical engineer Joseph J. Jacobs (June 13, 1916 - October 23, 2004) was an American chemical engineer who founded Jacobs Engineering Group, a large engineering and construction company. Jacobs was also a recipient of the Hoover Medal. Early life Jacobs was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1916. His father was a Lebanese immigrant who sold straight razors. He attended Brooklyn Technical High School. Jacobs worked various jobs to pay for his bachelor's degree in chemical engineering from the New York University Tandon School of Engineering, and taught college while he earned his master's degree and doctorate in that field, in 1939 and 1942, respectively. Career As a young engineer, he worked for Merck & Co. to develop mass production of both DDT and penicillin. In 1943, he was accidentally doused with hundreds of pounds of hot DDT when a hopper valve opened. Although coated with, by his own estimate, an inch of DDT from head to foot; according to the book Eco-Freaks, Jacobs suffered no ill consequences from his exposure. Jacobs Engineering After World War II, he moved to California, intending to go into business himself. In 1947, he opened a one-man consulting engineering bu