[3] He received a degree in mathematical physics from Birmingham University in 1960, and a PhD in superconductivity theory in 1963.
[4] He was the head of the scattering and quantum optics section at the Defence Research Agency, a visiting professor at Imperial College London, an honorary secretary of the Institute of Physics from 1994 until 2003, and finally a Professor of Applied Statistical Optics at the University of Nottingham from 1996.
In 1977, Jakeman received the Maxwell Medal of the Institute of Physics for his work on statistical optics.
His theoretical work on photon statistics and speckle has made a unique contribution to the development of the technique of photon correlation spectroscopy which is now used to investigate structure and motion in a wide range of systems of importance in engineering, medicine, physics, chemistry and biology.
Jakeman has also made contributions to the field of heat and mass transfer, particularly on the subjects of morphological stability and oscillatory convection in crystal growth, and was jointly responsible for the notion of doubly-diffusive convection driven by the Soret Effect.