Emily Jacobs, PhD

Dr. Emily Jacobs' body of research is redefining our understanding of the human brain and its capacity to undergo dynamic neuroanatomical changes and plasticity well into adulthood. In 2024 her team published the first detailed map of the human brain across pregnancy, giving a first glimpse into this fascinating neurological transition.

Women’s health is severely understudied across the biomedical sciences and this knowledge gap is especially striking in neuroscience. Less than 0.5% of neuroimaging studies consider female specific experiences — including the menstrual cycle, pregnancy, menopause and more (Jacobs, Nature 2023).

Launched in 2023 to eliminate the gender data gap in neuroscience, the Ann S. Bowers Women’s Brain Health Initiative (WBHI) is an endowed research institute dedicated to accelerating the pace of discovery for women’s brain health across the lifespan. By uniting research efforts across eight UC campuses, Stanford and Cornell, the WBHI is building the largest and most comprehensive dataset of brain imaging and women’s health phenotypes to date. The WBHI team spans 50 senior investigators driven by a radically simple idea: progress in neuroscience will flourish when the health of men and women are valued equally.

Dr. Jacobs has been named a Hellman Fellow, a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation “Health and Society” Scholar, a National Institutes of Health Women's Health Fellow, and a National Academy of Sciences Frontiers of Science Fellow for "distinguished young scientists under 45." Science News recently named her as one of “Top 10 Scientists” to watch around the globe. In addition to research, Dr. Jacobs and her team regularly partner with K-12 groups to advance girls' representation in STEM, worked featured in the book STEMinists: The Lifework of 12 Women Scientists and Engineers. Her work is featured in The New York Times, National Geographic, Scientific American, NPR, BBC, TED, Netflix and MasterClass.