Born in Breda, Popta was one of the first women to enrol as a student at Leiden University where she studied for a degree in geology, zoology and botany, allowing her to teach in high schools.
She studied for her doctorate at the University of Berne under the supervision of Eduard Fischer, her thesis was on the Hemiasci, a fungal group which was then thought to be the link between the Phycomycetes and Ascomycota.
[3] After completing her doctorate she obtained a position at the Rijksmuseum van Natuurlijke Historie in Leiden as a Lab Assistant to the curator of reptiles, amphibians and fishes.
[2] Despite the supposedly difficult relationship she had with Jentink she named the cyprinid Diplocheilichthys jentinkii in his honour for making specimens available for Popta to study.
[6] Among the taxa first described by Popta are the fishes Tetraodon hilgendorfii, Pangasius nieuwenhuisii, Dotsugobius bleekeri and Osteochilus bellus.