MARIA FAUST

Dr. Maria Anna Faust  
Dr. Maria Anna Faust (Spillenberg), a retired career civil servant and aquatic microbiologist with the Smithsonian Institution, passed away on April 24, 2021 at the age of 91 at the Riderwood Village retirement community in Montgomery County, MD from medical complications related to stroke. Dr. Faust was born on April 21, 1930 in Budapest, Hungary. She fled to Yugoslavia in 1957 after the Hungarian Revolution with her husband, Dr. Miklos Faust, and infant daughter, Judit. The family resided in a refugee camp for 20 months prior to emigrating to the United States. Dr. Faust earned a master degree in microbiology at Rutgers University and a doctoral degree in aquatic microbiology at the University of Maryland at College Park. During the course of her 40-year federal career at the National Museum of Natural History within the Smithsonian Institution, Dr. Faust published over 120 research papers and was cited nearly 5,000 times for her advancement in the knowledge of tropical dinoflagellate species and the impacts of warming seas and aquatic food chains.Dr. Faust is survived by her daughter, Judit Quasney and son-in-law Thomas Quasney of Silver Spring, MD; her grandchildren, Evan Quasney of Mercer Island, WA, Daniel Quasney of Washington, DC, and two great grandchildren. A private funeral service will be held at St. Andrew the Apostle Catholic Church on April 30, followed by a burial service at the Gate of Heaven Cemetery in Aspen Hill, MD. www.COLLINSFUNERALHOME.com