Moving to Berkeley in 1967, Jackson taught on campus, both introductory courses for physicists and engineers and graduate courses in particle physics and quantum mechanics. His lecture notes from the latter have been made into book. He did his research at LBNL and served in administrative positions at both the campus (Chair, University of California, Berkeley (UCB) Physics Department, 1978–1981) and the lab (Head, LBNL Physics Division, January 1982 – June 1984). In the formative years of the ill-fated Superconducting Super Collider (SSC) project, he served as deputy director of operations of the SSC Central Design Group.