Tom Jacobs

Office: 331 ERML
Phone: 333-1518
Office Hours: none scheduled, just email or call to make an appointment anytime

Hello!

I really enjoy teaching introductory biology courses such as IB102 and IB103 – more and more every year. I consider it a privilege to have the opportunity to guide students such as yourselves toward a practical understanding of How Life Works, from the logical perspective of the plants that make it all possible. Not only is such an understanding intellectually and even spiritually satisfying, but it provides essential tools that every educated individual must have nowadays to deal rationally with the pressing environmental and energy issues that we all face.

In the Fall of odd-numbered years, I also teach Plant Development (IB424). In that course, we look more deeply into the path that starts with a single cell and ends with a trillion cells cooperating to form a sexually mature plant. If my occasional references to IB424 intrigue you, feel free to talk to me about it or just sign up next time it's offered –– it's certainly open to undergraduates. In addition, I'm always happy to point students to other, more advanced courses covering topics we only have moments to touch upon in a two lecture per week survey such as this course.

My research focuses on cell division – a complex and exquisitely regulated process that enables the development of every plant and animal on the planet. Our technical approach embraces genetic, developmental and even ecological and evolutionary aspects of this ultimately cellular phenomenon. We look at how cell division patterns and decisions in specific developmental pathways are affected by the enviornment, and how plant genomes have evolved to accommodate this so-called developmental plasticity. If participating in research in a UIUC biology lab is something that interests you, I'd be happy to talk with you about coming to work in a lab, maybe ours. You can learn more about doing undergraduate research at UIUC here.

Throughout the semester, you'll notice that I like to illustrate biology with the best graphics, animation and video I can lay my hands (or mouse) on. I've enjoyed making many of these images and animations over the years and always have ideas for concepts that could be better visualized with new graphics and animations. If you like to do computer graphics and might be interested in working on such a project, let me know and maybe we can come up with a project as an independent study.

When I'm not teaching and researching at UIUC, I'm usually at home in the East Central Illinowhere countryside a few miles outside of  town (Vermillion River watershed). Our domestic pet crew currently numbers two shelter cats, Pickle and Pearl, and two German Shepherds, Neo and Luna. My non-academic interests include growing plants for food and pleasure, watching and photographing wildlife, reading about evolution (ok, I admit that's kind of academic), working on remodeling projects, enjoying music and my family (including the furry ones of course), foraging in the urban meccas 2-3 hours north and south of here, and visiting faraway in-laws.

Regarding the subject matter of this course: Imagine yourself totally naked, your feet encased in a concrete block embedded in the ground, somewhere, anywhere, on Earth. How long would you survive? Can't move, no clothing, no food, shelter or cell phone, none of the comforts, conveniences or "essentials" we all take for granted. In many places, you'd be lucky to make it to the next sunrise. But this is exactly what every plant puts up with day in and day out, season after season. They are the ULTIMATE SURVIVORS, descendents of the select few triumphant heroes of nature's merciless natural selection. Like our species, these unimaginably clever organisms have succeeded in beating the harrowingly long (2000-to-1) odds against avoiding extinction. But unlike us, plants have done so without being able to run from danger, hunt for food, dial 911, turn up the thermostat, get a flu shot, cash a welfare check or order out for pizza. What makes their triumph all the more impressive is that not only do they survive to reproduce despite having a lifestyle saddled with such limitations, but, (1) unlike us, every plant is completely self-sufficient for energy, and, (2) each is obliged, by virtue of the role in which the planet's ecological evolution has cast them, to give away a portion (in the form of body parts!) of that hard-earned energy to animals like us who are incapable of capturing our own solar energy. So plants are the GRAND (and, let's face it, generous) CHAMPIONS OF SELF-RELIANCE.

Now THAT is a success story to be admired, and therefore one worth studying and understanding.

In this course, as in all of biology, the question is: How do plants pull this off? Surely there must be some subtle, amazing and proven (by 2 billion years of evolution) tricks involved here. So what are the secrets? Much of modern and traditional plant research is aimed at answering these questions. Yet, despite centuries of study, there is still much to be learned about how billions of these Green Survival Machines are genetically programmed to germinate, grow, flower and set seeds every year, despite neverending, life-threatening challenges from the weather, fire, animals and microbes as well as fierce competition from other plants. This is the Darwinian foundation upon which all biological research is based, and therefore the context within which I present this course's material. If there is an overall IT to be gotten from studying biology, then IT is the evolutionary process that got us here and I will do my level best to help you get IT this semester.

Please feel free to stop me before or after class, or contact me by email or telephone to make an appointment anytime during the semester if you want to talk. I would like to get to know as many of you as possible and I want very much for each of you to ENJOY this course and be entertained and enriched by understanding how biology works, from the perspective of the plants that fuel the whole system.

See you in class!

-Tom

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