Margaretha Gerarda Mes obtained a B.Sc. degree in agriculture in 1923 at the University of Pretoria. After teaching for a few months, she left for the Netherlands where she undertook further studies in botany. There she obtained a Ph.D. in botany in 1930. Shortly afterwards she received a bursary from the International Federation of University Women for a year’s study in Berkeley, California.

In 1932 she accepted a lectureship in the Department of Botany at U.P. Dr. Mes was promoted to professor and head of the Department in 1944. She was the second female (the first female alumna) to be appointed professor at the University. The building in which the Department was housed proved to be totally inadequate for research in plant physiology.

Prof Mes thus made it her task to raise funds for the construction of a suitable laboratory building. The Bateman Laboratory, the second phytotron in the world, was completed in 1949. After a bequest by Dr. Bertha Stoneman, a plant biochemical laboratory was also constructed and the Bertha Stoneman Laboratory was opened in 1954. Thanks to the efforts of Prof Mes, the University of Pretoria, with these three buildings, now had a full-fledged Plant Physiological Research Institute. After the death of Prof Mes in 1959, the Institute was renamed the Margaretha Mes Institute for Plant Physiological Research.