James Jackson Named Assistant Golf Coach at RPI

2016 Aug 23

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) student-athlete James Jackson of Islesboro 04848 been named an assistant coach of the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) golf team, announced Dr. Lee McElroy, director of athletics. One of the most accomplished golfers in school history, Jackson will aide 14th-year head coach Miles Nolan.

A captain as a senior in 2015-16, Jackson was All-Liberty League and All-Region in 2015-16 after he averaged a team-best 76.7 strokes over 18 rounds. He had four top 10 finishes, including third overall at the NYU Spring Invitational, fifth at the ECAC Championship in the fall and eighth in the four-round Liberty League Championship. The Liberty League Performer of the Week once, his best rounds included a 70 at The Ranch on the second day of the ECAC Tournament, three 73s and three 74s.

During his junior year, Jackson competed in 10 tournaments and won four times on his way to earning four Liberty League Performer of the Week awards, ECAC Golfer of the Month once, All-Region and National All-America Honorable Mention.

In his first two seasons he had three top 10 finishes, including a runner-up, and was selected All-Liberty League Second Team in 2012-13.

Jackson, the only golfer in Rensselaer history to earn National Academic All-America accolades, was a biomedical engineering major with a 3.93 cumulative grade point average. While an undergraduate, he conducted extensive research, including in the Musculoskeletal Mechanics Laboratory at Rensselaer, where he developed a robust pressure chamber. The apparatus is currently being used to characterize passive, wireless pressure sensors being developed for monitoring intracompartmental and intracranial pressure. He also worked in the Musculoskeletal Tissue Regeneration Laboratory at Rutgers University, where he conducted a cell culture study. Jackson, who had multiple abstracts accepted for poster sessions at research conferences, interned on the medical devices team at Regeneron Pharmaceuticals and has since accepted full-time employment with Regeneron.

Among the academic honors he earned throughout his tenure at RPI were two-time National Academic All-America, as selected by the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA), Liberty League All-Academic three times, Dean's List eight times and CoSIDA Capital One Academic All-District First Team twice. He was awarded the prestigious Leopold L. Balleisen Prize, which was established by the Class of 1918 and honors a senior student-athlete who has won a varsity letter in at least one sport during two undergraduate years and who stands highest academically among those thus qualified, a Founders Award of Excellence and the Rensselaer Leadership Award.

The Belfast Area High School graduate native was also voted the Liberty League Male Scholar-Athlete of the Year, an award presented to graduating student-athletes - one female and one male - who have demonstrated excellence in academics, athletics and service/leadership throughout their time as student-athletes.