Marie Jakus

Marie Agnes Jakus (born ) was an American biologist and microscopist specialized in electron microscopic studies of the fine structure of eye tissues. She was a researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Retina Foundation, and the National Institute of Neurological Diseases and Blindness before becoming a science administrator at the Center for Scientific Review.

Early life and education Jakus was born in Ohio to Hungarian immigrants, Anna H. Vintila (née Hovancsik) and Anton Jakus. She had a sister, Florence A. Frash. Jakus completed a B.A. from Oberlin College where she was a student assistant for 5 years. She was a member of Phi Beta Kappa and Sigma Xi. Jakus received a fellowship from Oberlin College in 1938 to study marine invertebrate zoology at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. She later worked as a graduate assistant at Washington University in St. Louis between 1938 and 1941, during which she received a fellowship in 1941 to return to Woods Hole to study physiology. Jakus joined the staff of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) as a research assistant. At MIT, she began working toward her Ph.D. in biology, receiving it in 1945. Her dissertation was titled The Structure and Properties of the Trichocysts of Paramecium. Jakus' doctoral advisor was Francis O. Schmitt.

Career Jakus remained at MIT as a research associate. During her 10 years there, she was awarded a Rockefeller Foundation Fellowship and took a year's sabbatical leave to study at the Institute for Cell Research at the Karolinska Institute.

Selected works