Elizabeth Nesta Marks

Her father, Ted (Edward Oswald) Marks, born in Brisbane in 1882, was a geologist and inventor (later an ophthalmologist) from a family of doctors.

Ted Marks, travelled to Ireland twice to undertake his studies because of the absence of a university in Queensland.

He left for Ireland in 1913 to conduct his medical studies and married Nesta Drury, also of Brisbane, in 1914.

Elizabeth Nesta "Pat" Marks (28 April 1918 – 25 October 2002) was an Australian entomologist who described 38 new mosquito species, as well as new species of fruit flies, bugs, cockroaches and ticks.

She had a PhD in insect physiology from the University of Cambridge and was a member of the Royal Entomological Society of London.

Marks was born in Dublin, Ireland, in 1918, and was known by the name Pat or Patricia for the Cathedral she was christened in (St Patrick's Cathedral).

Their daughter Pat was born following his service in WW1 An only child, Pat Marks and her family returned to Australia in 1920, residing in Wickham Terrace, Brisbane for over 60 years alongside a large extended family.

After attending St John's Cathedral School in Brisbane and the Glennie Memorial School in Toowoomba as a boarder, where she left as Dux of the school in 1934, she enrolled in the University of Queensland.

She was interested in becoming a veterinarian, but her father encouraged her to pursue entomology.

The Marks family had a strong interest in the natural sciences and the importance of science serving the community.

Marks excelled at swimming at school, was an accomplished horsewoman, getting her first horse at age 5, and participated in hockey at UQ.

She also swam later for Cambridge.

Weekends were spent at her grandfather's farm at Camp Mountain near Samford, where the family ran horses.

Marks graduated from UQ with a B.Sc.

in 1938, principally studying zoology, and gained her Honours (second class) degree in the parasitology of marsupial animals in 1939.

She would earn a M.Sc.

In 1939, Marks began work as Assistant Curator of the Pathology Museum in the newly established University of Queensland Medical School.

However she balanced her interests in medicine and entomology by tutoring medical students who were taking classes with her former lecturer, F. Athol Perkins.

in 1940, studying under supervisor, Dr Ronald Hamlyn-Harris.

Dr Hamlyn-Harris was Brisbane's then leading entomologist studying the biological control of mosquitoes.

Marks became a Graduate Research Assistant at the University of Queensland in 1943, working for the Department of Entomology and Mosquito Control Committee (MCC).

Due to the outbreak of WW2 and the movement of Australian troops into New Guinea where high levels of malaria existed, mosquito control became a significant issue.

Casualties from malaria outstripped war related casualties Outbreaks of Dengue Fever affected both Brisbane and Cairns.

Marks was brought in to assist F. Athol Perkins in providing material for the Army to use in their Malaria training schools.

Marks continued to work to identify Queensland mosquitoes and research their taxonomy and breeding biology, so that adequate measures could be applied to control the risk of disease carried by them.

She identified the breeding behaviour of many mosquitoes including Aedes culiciformis.

She would also be tasked with going into areas with unexpectedly large numbers of mosquitoes.

Her work for the Health department's eradication program of Aedes aegypti led to this mosquito's disappearance in the Brisbane area where it had caused Dengue Fever outbreaks.

Marks worked for both the Queensland Health department and UQ until 1949 when she took leave to visit Europe.

She visited Amsterdam, the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and the British Museum of Natural History (now Natural History Museum).

Marks continued her research while overseas, completing her PhD in insect physiology at the University of Cambridge, Newnham College.

She joined the Royal Entomological Society of London while at Cambridge.

She returned to Australia in 1951 where she undertook fieldwork for Dr Bill Reeves in Mildura, Victoria and in Townsville in 1952, exploring outbreaks of Murray Valley encephalitis.

Another member of this team was Dr Josephine Mackerras, who Marks would work with on many occasions.

She would travel to the Torres Strait Islands on research expeditions for the Queensland Institute of Medical Research (QIMR).

In 1954, Marks made a significant collection of marine insects off Low Isles Reef of far North Queensland.

Other members of the expedition included Dr Mackerras, Isobel Bennett and Dorothy Hill.

Marks discovered a tiny marine insect on the reef near Heron Island, where a UQ research station was being established.

It was named Corallocoris marksae in recognition of her discovery.

In 1955, two entomologists who had worked in the South Pacific during World War II, Willard V. King and Harry Hoogstraal, named a mosquito they collected at Hollandia, Netherlands New Guinea, in 1945, Culex marksae to honor her; the corethrellid midge Corethrella marksae is also named in her honor.