About

Ricardo Jacobs is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Global Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He earned his PhD in Sociology from Johns Hopkins University. His research focuses on the global political economy of urbanization, ecology, and agrarian change, with a particular emphasis on post-colonial Africa. His work examines how global colonial-racial capitalism and class struggle from below influence race, ethnicity, gender, and class at both local and global levels. Prior to pursuing his PhD, Jacobs worked for more than 15 years in the areas of land and agrarian reform, food sovereignty, agro-ecology, and agrarian social movement building in South Africa. His scholarly contributions include a recent article titled “An Urban Proletariat with Peasant Characteristics: Land Occupations and Livestock Raising in South Africa,” which received the Krishna Bharadwaji and Eric Wolf Prize from the Journal of Peasant Studies and the Terence K. Hopkins award from the Political Economy of the World System section of the American Sociological Association. He also serves as the Book Review Section co-editor of the Journal of Peasant Studies.

Research topics

• Meteorology
• Environmental science
• Geography
• Geology
• Climatology

Selected publications

• Co-Variability between the Surface Wind Divergence and Vorticity over the Ocean

  Remote Sensing · 2024 · 1 citations

  1st authorCorresponding
  • Environmental science
  • Geology
  • Climatology

  We examine the co-variability between the surface wind divergence and vorticity and how it varies with latitude in the Pacific Ocean using surface vector winds from reanalysis and satellite scatterometer observations. We show a strong correlation between divergence and vorticity throughout the extratropical oceans. From this observation, we develop a dynamical model to explain the first-order dynamics which govern this strong co-variability. Our model exploits the fact that for much of the time, the large-scale surface winds are approximately in a steady-state Ekman balance to first order. An angle α′ is derived from Ekman dynamics by utilizing only the surface divergence and vorticity and is shown to succinctly summarize the co-variability between divergence and vorticity. This approach yields insight into the dynamics that shape the spatial variations in the large-scale surface wind field over the ocean; previous research has focused mainly on explaining variability in the vector winds rather than the derivative wind fields. Our model predicts two steady-state conditions which are easily identifiable as discrete peaks in α′ Probability Distribution Functions (PDFs). In the Northern Hemisphere, steady-state conditions can be either (1) diverging, with negative vorticity, or (2) converging, with positive vorticity. We show that these two states correspond to relative high and low sea-level pressure features, respectively. Southern Hemisphere conditions are similar to those of the Northern Hemisphere, except with the opposite sign of vorticity. This model also predicts the latitudinal variations in the co-variability between divergence and vorticity due to the latitudinal variation in the Coriolis parameter. The main conclusion of this study is that the statistical co-variability between the surface divergence and vorticity over the ocean is consistent with Ekman dynamics and provides perhaps the first dynamical approach for interpreting their statistical distributions. The related α′ PDFs provide a unique method for analyzing air–sea interactions and will likely have applications in evaluating the surface wind fields from scatterometers and weather and reanalysis models.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Cyclodextrin Formulation of the Marine Natural Product Pseudopterosin A Uncovers Optimal Pharmacodynamics in Proliferation Studies of Human Umbilical Vein Endothelial Cells

  Marine Drugs · 2013-08-26 · 17 citations

  articleOpen access

  Pseudopterosin A (PsA) treatment of growth factor depleted human umbilical vein endothelial cell (HUVEC) cultures formulated in hydroxypropyl-β-cyclodextrin (HPβCD) for 42 h unexpectedly produced a 25% increase in cell proliferation (EC₅₀ = 1.34 × 10⁻⁸ M). Analysis of dose response curves revealed pseudo-first order saturation kinetics, and the uncoupling of cytotoxicity from cell proliferation, thereby resulting in a widening of the therapeutic index. The formulation of PsA into HPβCD produced a 200-fold increase in potency over a DMSO formulation; we propose this could result from a constrained presentation of PsA to the receptor, which would limit non-specific binding. These results support the hypothesis that the non-specific receptor binding of PsA when formulated in DMSO has ostensibly masked prior estimates of specific activity, potency, and mechanism. Collectively, these results suggest that the formulation of PsA and compounds of similar chemical properties in HPβCD could result in significant pharmacological findings that may otherwise be obscured when using solvents such as DMSO.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Whole Earth or No Earth: The Origin of the Whole Earth Icon in the Ashes of Hiroshima and Nagasaki

  Japan focus · 2012-01-01 · 2 citations

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  In the aftermath of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, a majority of Japanese people came to see nuclear power as safe and productive even as there were misgivings about nuclear weapons. President Eisenhower's attempts in the 1950s to convince people about the potential of peaceful nuclear power were quite successful and, especially compared to carbon fuels, nuclear energy was considered a relatively inexpensive and environmentally friendly way for Japan to achieve energy self-sufficiency. Robert Jacobs’ essay reminds us of the important distinction between responses to nuclear energy, and to nuclear weapons, in the wake of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The atomic bombings left room for optimism about the future of nuclear energy, but they also reinforced pessimism about the future of nuclear weapons. Jacobs examines how Western editorial cartoons from the 1940s and 1950s that responded to the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki gave birth to the visual icon of the whole earth. Well before photographs of the whole earth became a part of the cultural lexicon in the late 1960s, these cartoon renderings shaped how the earth came to be viewed and understood as a target and victim of nuclear weapons and war. Jacobs stresses the importance of the visual in environmental history, and underscores themes interwoven through many of these essays including the interconnectedness between present debates and battles over the past, and the multi-national or transnational nature of many environmental issues.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Pseudopterosin A ‐ an Atypical Antagonist of Adenosine A2B Receptors that Accelerates Angiogenesis

  The FASEB Journal · 2012-04-01

  articleSenior author

  Summary Pseudopterosins are known anti‐inflammatory and anti‐microbial agents, isolated from the soft coral, Pseudopterogorgia elisabethae . We report pseudopterosins as activators of cell proliferation in human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVEC), a cellular model of angiogenesis. A hydroxypropyl‐β‐cyclodextrin (HPβCD) formulation of pseudopterosin A (PsA) elicited a 25% increase in cell proliferation (EC 50 = 1.34 ×10 −8 M) in growth factor depleted HUVEC lines. This constitutes a >200 fold increase in potency over DMSO formulations. We demonstrate that the effect of PsA is mediated through inhibition of adenosine A 2B receptors which leads to decreased synthesis of cAMP and that this effect can be reversed with a selective A 2 agonist, CV‐1808. In addition we show that PsA can induce protein kinase B (AKT) phosphorylation which has been shown to activate proliferation via the phosphatidylinositol 3‐kinase (PI3K) pathway. Collectively, this indicates that pseudopterosins are promising compounds for adenosine receptor mediated pathologies.

  PublisherDOI

• Whole Earth or No Earth: The Origin of the Whole Earth Icon in the Ashes of Hiroshima and Nagasaki

  Japan focus · 2011-03-01 · 1 citations

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  “Once a photograph of the Earth, taken from outside, is available - once the sheer isolation of the Earth becomes known - a new idea as powerful as any in history will be let loose.” –Fred Hoyle, 1950

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Synthetic pseudopterosin analogues: A novel class of antiinflammatory drug candidates

  Bioorganic & Medicinal Chemistry · 2010-10-08 · 28 citations

  article
  PublisherDOI

• Target Earth

  2010-01-01

  other1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• The odyssey of marine pharmaceuticals: a current pipeline perspective

  Trends in Pharmacological Sciences · 2010-04-06 · 653 citations

  review
  PublisherDOI

• Further Exploration of the Redox Chemistry of Strained Hydrocarbons and the Pseudopterosins

  ECS Meeting Abstracts · 2010-02-05

  articleOpen access

  Abstract not Available.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Ch09. Target Earth

  Lexington Books · 2010-01-01

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

Frequent coauthors

• William H. Gerwick

  Scripps Institution of Oceanography

  21 shared

• R. Thomas Williamson

  University of North Carolina Wilmington

  18 shared

• Brian L. Márquez

  Bruker (United States)

  18 shared

• Kevin McGough

  18 shared

• Kimberly Colsen

  Nagoya City University

  16 shared

• Lisa Nogle

  Merck & Co., Inc., Rahway, NJ, USA (United States)

  16 shared

• Min Wu

  State Grid Corporation of China (China)

  16 shared

• Thomas F. Murray

  16 shared

Awards & honors

• Krishna Bharadwaji and Eric Wolf Prize from the Journal of P…
• Terence K. Hopkins award from the Political Economy of the W…