Jaak Järv

Jaak Järv (born 5 November 1948) is an Estonian chemist and professor emeritus of organic chemistry at the University of Tartu. He was elected a member of the Estonian Academy of Sciences in 1997 and served as its secretary general from 2017 to 2024. His research has focused on bioorganic chemistry, especially enzyme catalysis, receptor–ligand interactions, biomimetics, and structure–activity relationships of bioactive compounds.

Early life and education Järv was born in Tartu. He graduated from Tartu 5th Secondary School in 1967 and from the University of Tartu cum laude in 1972. He received a Doctor of Sciences degree from Moscow State University in 1990 with a dissertation on kinetic mechanisms of receptor–ligand interactions involving the muscarinic acetylcholine receptor, and he was appointed professor in 1991. From 1991 to 2002 he was professor of bioorganic chemistry, and from 2002 he was professor of organic chemistry. The Academy's 2021 register listed more than 250 research articles and 22 master's theses under his supervision, together with a long record of completed doctoral dissertations. Later honours have included the University of Tartu Badge of Distinction in 2007, the University of Tartu Medal in 2008, the Order of the White Star, 3rd Class, in 2009, the Estonian Academy of Sciences Medal in the same year, election to Academia Europaea in 2020, and the University of Tartu decoration "100 Semesters at the University of Tartu" in 2020.

Selected works