Marie-Louise Jacotin was the daughter of a lawyer for a French bank, and the grand-daughter (through her mother) of a glassblower from a family of Greek origin.
With the encouragement of ENS director Ernest Vessiot she traveled to Oslo to work with Vilhelm Bjerknes, under whose influence she became interested in the mathematics of waves and the work of Tullio Levi-Civita in this subject.