Alpers was educated at Adelaide U. and Cambridge U., UK (Makin scholar). He was emeritus professor of international health at Curtin U. in Perth, Australia. He was previously: John Curtin distinguished professor, Curtin U.; research officer, Kuru Research, Okapa, Territory of New Guinea 1961-63; visiting scientist at NIH, Bethesda, Maryland 1964-67; research fellow, dept. of microbiology, Univ. of Western Australia, Perth 1968-76; and dir. of the Papua New Guinea Inst. of Medical Research 1977-2000. His awards included: Medal, Collѐge de France; Macdonald Medal, Royal Society Trop. Med. Hyg., London; Queensland Inst. Med. Res. Fellow; PNG Inst. Med. Res. Fellow; Hon. Internatl. Fellow, Am. Soc. Trop. Med. Hyg.; Inaugural Life Member, Med. Soc. Papua New Guinea; Fellow, Royal Society of London and Australian Acad. of Science; Companion of the Order of the Star of Melanesia (PNG); and Officer of the Order of Australia.

Jagadish is a distinguished professor and the head of the Semiconductor Optoelectronics and Nanotechnology Group at the Australian National University. In 2021, he has been appointed president of the Australian Academy of Science, the latest of a long list of prestigious leadership activities. He has covered important editorial position in over 10 scientific journals. He published more than 650 journal papers, holds five US patents, and contributed, as co-author or co-editor, to over 15 books. He is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science; a distinguished Fellow of the Chinese Academy of Sciences; a visiting professor at Oxford University, UK; a distinguished chair professor for research at the National Taiwan University, among many other positions. Among his awards are: the Lloyd Rees Memorial Lecture by the Australian Academy of Science (2020); the Thomas Ranken Lyle Medal by the Australian Academy of Science (2019); and UNESCO Medal for contributions to the development of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (2018). In 2025, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (UK).