Dr. Michael R. Jacobs is board certified in Medical Microbiology and was Director of Clinical Microbiology at University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center, Cleveland, Ohio, 1979-2019. He was also Professor of Pathology at Case Western Reserve University and is now Emeritus. Dr. Jacobs received his medical degree and doctorate in Medical Microbiology from the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa. He completed Internships in Surgery and Internal Medicine at the Johannesburg Hospital, and a Residency in Medical Microbiology at the School of Pathology of the South African Institute for Medical Research and the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg. Dr. Jacobs' research interests include epidemiology, antimicrobial susceptibility and mechanisms of resistance of antibiotic-resistant Streptococcus pneumoniae, the microbiology and antimicrobial susceptibility of otitis media pathogens, clinical study design, application of pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic principles to respiratory tract and other infections, bacterial contamination of platelet and stem cell products, mycobacterial infections and evaluation of new diagnostic products. In collaboration with his Transfusion Medicine colleagues, he has authored several seminal papers on the epidemiology and clinical consequences of bacterial contamination of platelets. He has published over 500 papers in peer-reviewed journals and as well as several book chapters.