She took her degree in chemistry at the University of Aberdeen, and her DPhil at Somerville College, Oxford.
She met her future husband Martyn Jope while working at the Dyson Perrins Laboratory at University of Oxford.
After their marriage she accompanied him to Belfast, where he later became Professor of Archaeology at Queen's University.
Margaret continued her research while at Belfast, in the Geology Department, where she worked primarily on brachiopods, especially on their shell protein.
[1] Her other research interests included the crystallisation of haemoglobin,[2] and working with Martyn, made studies of animal bones, especially bird bones, at archaeological sites mainly in Northern Ireland and Oxfordshire.