In 2021, she became the first female senior professor at the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies (DIAS) Dunsink Observatory.

She then completed a PhD in Planetary Physics at the University of Leicester in 2006 supervised by Stan Cowley.

[8] Jackman's research focuses on the physics of planetary magnetospheres, primarily of the Earth and Jupiter.

[9] She has made key discoveries about the response of the Earth and Jupiter magnetosphere systems to the changes in the solar wind,[10] in particular how the aurora works, and how machine learning and complexity science can be used to study huge volumes of data from space.

[11] She is also involved in a number of outreach activities,[12] including Ireland's first space-themed escape room, designed to make space accessible to a wider audience.