Janet Hanula Akyüz was born in
Bodrum,
Turkey, the eldest of five siblings born to
Turkish Jewish parents, Bella and Baruh Akyüz. She was educated at the
American Collegiate Institute,
İzmir. She came to the
United States for university studies, and attended
Brandeis University in
Waltham,
MA on the
Wien Scholarship. Later, she was offered a job by
Dorrit Hoffleit at the
Maria Mitchell Observatory in
Nantucket,
Massachusetts. She worked at
Leander McCormick Observatory in
Charlottesville, Virginia from 1970 to 1972 and received her
M.A. in Astronomy from the
University of Virginia in 1972 and her
Ph.D. in Astronomy from
Ege University in
İzmir, Turkey, 1982. As head of the AAVSO for over 30 years, she collected observations of
variable stars by
amateur astronomers from around the world. She coordinated many important observing programs between amateur observers and professional astronomers. She was also keenly interested in education and student science projects. Under her direction, the database of the association was made available to educators and also assisted non-professional astronomers access the
Hubble Space Telescope. == Awards and honors ==