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

[4] 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.

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.

[2] Marks continued to work to identify Queensland mosquitoes and research their taxonomy and breeding biology,[9] so that adequate measures could be applied to control the risk of disease carried by them.

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.

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

[2] She returned to Australia in 1951 where she undertook fieldwork for Dr Bill Reeves in Mildura, Victoria and in Townsville in 1952,[2] exploring outbreaks of Murray Valley encephalitis.

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

[4] From 1951–1973 she managed a number of projects including a study of the insects used by the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) Wildlife Survey Section for the introduction of myxomatosis in rabbits.

[7] Marks retired in 1983 but continued to work at QIMR, and transferred her research energies to history, specifically of science, scientists and their professional societies.

Marks and many other entomologists fought this regulation speaking to government officials, politicians and working with the Australian Academy of Science.

She was equally famous for her Army metal soup ladle which was used to collect mosquito larvae and as an oar when an outboard motor might break down.

[4] Geoff Monteith of the Queensland Museum described her as "a woman of imposing presence and strong personality, with a sense of obligation to her science and the community in a broader context".

[20] The Marks family farm was sold off, but the old cottage now exists at the Queensland University of Technology’s Samford Ecological Research Facility (SERF).