John Jacobson, assistant professor of aerospace engineering and engineering mechanics, is known by his students as a caring man.

When students in one of his engineering classes approached him about dismissing the class a few minutes early to help them avoid swamped lunch lines at a residence hall, Jacobson obliged.

“He lets us out of Aerospace Engineering 170 a little bit early because someone complained that the lunch lines at Maple-Willow-Larch are too long,” said Nicholas Serdar, freshman in pre-aerospace engineering.

Aside from his concern for students’ hunger, Jacobson also is concerned with students’ desire to excel in the job market.

“He teaches us things that we will need to know in the industry. He molds us to the needs of the industry,” Serdar said.

Jacobson joined Iowa State’s engineering department in 1995.

When faced with the decision of whether to become a teaching assistant or an instructor, Jacobson chose to teach because it paid more.

“I returned here to get an advanced degree. Not wishing to be a poor starting graduate student, I chose to be an instructor, and I like it,” he said.

Jacobson said he likes his current position with the university.

“My goal is to continue working with students at ISU,” he said. “I like the challenge of what’s considered a relatively new frontier.”

Jacobson said he enjoys working with undergraduates in engineering because he can see how they progress academically from year to year.

“I like working with the co-op program because it gets students some experience while they are here,” he said. “I think I also enjoy seeing students develop from their freshman orientation until they are seniors going out into the industry to work for companies such as Boeing and NASA.”

Jacobson is committed to helping students get into the industry by working on various aspects of the cooperative education programs, internships and “meaningful summer work.”

“Students have many opportunities here at Iowa State,” he said. “It’s not uncommon for us to get up in the middle of class, go next door to the lab and see a principle in practice.”

Students perceive him as affable.

“He is very approachable. You don’t feel intimidated talking to him,” Serdar said.

Jay Kemper, freshman in pre-aerospace engineering, said Jacobson is always enthusiastic about looking out for students.

“He opened up an entirely new section of [Aerospace] Engineering 170 because I couldn’t get into it,” he said. “He really looks out for the best interests of his students.”

---

John Jacobson

Degrees: bachelor’s degree from ISU in 1971; master’s degree from ISU in 1979.

Family: lives in Ames with wife, Jane.

Advice to students: “You will always need to continue to learn throughout your career.”

Dislikes about his job: “Grading papers. Students don’t like to do homework, and teachers don’t like to grade it. Homework is very important in feedback, though. Everyone needs to know how they are doing. Feedback is how we learn.”