Carlyle F. Jacobsen, known as Jake, was born January 17, 1902 in Minneapolis, Minnesota to Danish-American parents. Dr. Jacobsen completed his Bachelor of Arts at the University of Minnesota, where he also completed his PhD in Psychology with minors in neurology and physiology. He worked as a teaching assistant and as an instructor in Psychology for the University during this time.

Dr. Jacobsen had a fellowship in Comparative Psychobiology at the Yale Anthropoid Research Center in Orange Park, Florida from 1930 to 1931. It was here that he made great strides in his studies of the frontal lobe, using chimpanzees as test subjects. Dr. Jacobsen was an assistant professor of Psychobiology and Psychology at Yale from 1933 to 1937. He took a leave of absence from 1936-1937 to serve as a General Education Board Fellow in Neurophysiology at Harvard.

In 1938, he was awarded the Howard Crosby Warren Medal for distinguished research in experimental psychology. Dr. Jacobsen received this award for his work on the psychological and physiological functions of the frontal lobe. That same year, he, along with Dr. John Fulton and Dr. Margaret Kennard, received the Bronze Medal from the American Medical Association for an educational exhibit of the functions of the cerebral cortex.

Dr. Jacobsen was an assistant professor of Medical Psychology at Washington University in St. Louis for eight years. He also served as assistant dean from 1942-1946. He spent considerable time as a clinician during this period; he worked as a consultant Psychologist for St. Louis Children's Hospital, Bliss Psychopathic Hospital and St. Louis City Sanatorium. From 1947-1950, he was executive dean for the Health Sciences at Iowa State University.

In 1950 Dr. Jacobsen became the executive dean for Medical Education for the newly created State University of New York. He was instrumental to the development of both SUNY Upstate and SUNY Downstate Medical Center in Brooklyn. Dr. Jacobsen became the first president of SUNY Upstate Medical Center and dean of its College of Medicine in 1957. He stepped down as President in 1967. During those ten years he was responsible for the physical expansion of both schools, including the expansion of the Basic Sciences Building (Weiskotten Hall) and the opening of the new University Hospital at Upstate. Under his leadership, a College of Nursing was established at Upstate.

After retirement, Dr. Jacobsen became executive secretary of the Hospital Review and Planning Council of Central New York where he oversaw expansion and development of area hospitals, nursing homes, and other patient care facilities. Dr. Jacobsen died in 1974 at the age of 72; he was survived by his wife, Ellen Cook Jacobsen MD, an alumna and long time faculty member of SUNY Upstate. Additional information about Dr. Jacobsen’s life and career may be found in this online exhibit: http://hsl.upstate.edu/jacobsentimeline