Jake was born and raised in Minooka, Illinois, a place in the middle of nowhere surrounded by cornfields. Wanting to get out of there, he moved to North Carolina and went to UNC Asheville. 

There he worked on synthesizing inhibitors of a bacterial quorum sensing pathway in the lab of Dr. Caitlin McMahon. Once he graduated, Jake took a gap year deciding what to do and worked in an environmental testing lab that tested water. Deciding that it was bearable to live in North Carolina even longer, he decided to pursue a PhD in chemistry at UNC Chapel Hill as a biological student and joined the Waters lab. 

Outside of lab, Jake can be found playing video games or hanging out with his cat, Payton.