He was a zoologist at the Zoological Museum of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

He published papers mainly on the systematics and zoogeography of Chrysomelidae beetles.

Many of the fine colour plates were based on Carl Gustav Calwer's Kaeferbuch, with updates to the names of some of the beetles.

[1] Jacobson is best known as the author of the magisterial 900-page Beetles of Russia, Western Europe and neighbouring countries (1905-1915), and co-author, with Valentin Lvovich Bianchi, of Orthoptera and Pseudoneuroptera of the Russian Empire (1905).

His other works include the following: His zoological author abbreviation is Jakobson.