Currently Dr. Jaax is the Associate Vice Provost for Research Compliance and University Veterinarian at Kansas State University. His responsibilities included university-wide oversight and compliance with applicable regulatory laws and guidelines for animals used in research and teaching, research programs involving human subjects, and activities involving recombinant DNA and biosafety. He is presently a Principal Investigator on several high profile federal homeland security projects and frequently collaborates with scientists on other university special projects, especially those associated with homeland security initiatives.

In 1998 after 26 years of service, Dr. Jaax retired from the Amy at the rank of Colonel. During his career he worked in a number of professional capacities, including medical defense against chemical and biological warfare programs, biological arms control and treaty compliance programs, biowarfare counter-proliferation and cooperative threat reduction efforts in the former Soviet Union, professional mentor for laboratory animal medicine officers, post-graduate lab animal medicine training program director, and many other duties common the a veterinary medical officer.

COL Jaax served as the "Consultant to The Surgeon General of the Army" for the specialty of Laboratory Animal Medicine for over six years, serving as the professional and career mentor for over seventy military board certified and in-training laboratory animal medicine veterinary officers. During his tenure as consultant, he chaired the interagency committee with oversight responsibility for high risk, high visibility DoD animal care and use programs. A notable accomplishment during this period was the design and implementation of a standardized laboratory animal care and use program that was adopted for use across the entire Department of Defense.

After graduating from K-State in 1972, Dr. Jaax entered the U.S. Army Veterinary Corp, initiating a military career that has impacted the security of this country. In his most recent military position as Director, Biological Arms Control Treaty Office, United States Army Medical Research & Material Command, Ft. Detrick Maryland, from 1997-1998, he was designated the Implementing Agent responsible for the implementation and compliance of the U.S. Army with all applicable biological arms control treaties and agreements. In this position he played a role in national Cooperative Threat Reduction and counter-proliferation programs and efforts in the Former Soviet Union. The basic aim of these international programs is to reduce the possibility that offensive biological weapons programs are still active in Russia, and to prevent the potential proliferation of biological weapons and technology from the Former Soviet Union to rogue nations or other parties.

From 1989-1997, he served as Chief, Veterinary Medicine Division, United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases at Ft. Detrick, Maryland. Responsibilities as Chief, Veterinary Medicine Division, included management of a comprehensive veterinary research services and a support division, concurrently serving as the Director of the U.S. Army's Post-Graduate Training Program in Laboratory Animal Medicine with an academic appointment at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda MD. During this time he gained extensive research and management experience in high-hazard animal care and use programs in biohazard containment environments through the BSL4 level. During this year, he was a key participant in the Reston Ebola hemorrahagic fever response and management operation described in Richard Prestons's New York Times Bestseller, The Hot Zone.