Born: 1890, United States (assumed)
Died: 1954
Country most active: United States
Also known as: Jessie Marie Jacobs Muller Offermann
The following is excerpted from Infinite Women creator Allison Tyra’s book Uncredited: Women’s Overlooked, Misattributed, and Stolen Work.
Mathematician Jessie Marie Jacobs met her future husband, geneticist Hermann Joseph Muller, while working as an instructor at the University of Texas in the early 1920s. He was looking for help with mathematical modelling of genetic mutations in flies. The couple married in 1923, and Jessie was soon fired for becoming pregnant with their first child. Her own career effectively terminated, Jessie continued collaborating with her husband in his laboratory. While he did recognise her contributions with co-authorship on a published paper, Jessie did not share the 1946 Nobel Prize that he won for work they did together.