After acquiring a BA in Geology from Rutgers University in 1962, Dr. Jacob studied the geology of the Swiss Alps as a Fulbright Scholar in Lausanne, Switzerland before receiving his PhD from the University of Colorado in 1969. He then taught at the University of North Dakota for five years where he mentored MS and PhD candidates and successfully consulted in Mobil Oil’s coal-exploration program in the Williston Basin. He published landmark work on the depositional systems of the Tertiary of the Williston Basin and used that work to develop and publish successful techniques and strategies for coal and uranium exploration.

Following his academic career, Dr. Jacob joined the U. S. Geological Survey in 1975 and developed uranium-exploration plays in the Appalachian Basin based on reconnaissance  field work, including a previously unknown play in the Permian Dunkard Group. He then joined industry and generated eleven major petroleum, uranium and coal-related exploration projects in the Rocky Mountains, Basin and Range Province, and Texas for McMahon-Bullington. These projects included the thrust belt of western Montana, the Front Range and other mountain-front subthrusts, the Ft. Union Formation of the Powder River Basin, the fractured Niobrara Formation, uranium in Tertiary sediments in Montana and Nevada and “serpentine” plugs in South Texas, among others.

In 1998 Dr. Jacob joined J. M. Huber Corp. where he initiated extensive coalbed methane exploration in the Powder River Basin that resulted in discoveries at Recluse Field (200 BCFG) and Lone Tree (20 BCFG), and where he generated a significant mountain-front subthrust project. In early 2004 he joined Thomasson Partner Associates, Inc. where he is now evaluating and marketing an assortment of exploration projects in the U. S. Rocky Mountain region, mid-continent, Appalachians and internationally.