Group

MIT EAPS Directory

Tanja Bosak

Professor

Chair of the Program in Geology, Geochemistry & Geobiology

Website

Tanja’s laboratory uses experimental geobiology to explore modern biogeochemical and sedimentological processes in microbial systems and interpret the record of life on the Early Earth.

Tanja Bosak was born in Croatia and graduated from the Zagreb University with a degree in Geophysics. After a summer of research at JPL and a short stint as a meteorologist at the Zagreb Airport, she moved to the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, where she studied signatures of microbial processes in ancient sedimentary rocks and earned a Ph.D. in Geobiology. She spent two years at Harvard as a Microbial Initiative Postdoctoral Fellow, joined the Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences at MIT in 2007 and is now a professor of Geobiology.

Publications

Antler, G., Turchyn, A. V., Ono, S., Sivan, O., and Bosak, T. (2017), Combined 34 S, 33 S and 18 O isotope fractionations record different intracellular steps of microbial sulfate reduction, Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, 203, 364-380, doi: 10.1016/j.gca.2017.01.015

Newman, S. A., Klepac‐Ceraj, V., Mariotti, G., Pruss, S. B., Watson, N., and Bosak, T. (2017), Experimental fossilization of mat‐forming cyanobacteria in coarse‐grained siliciclastic sediments, Geobiology, doi: 10.1111/gbi.12229

Moore, K. R., Bosak, T., Macdonald, F. A., Lahr, D. J. G., Newman, S., Settens, C., and Pruss, S. B. (2017), Biologically agglutinated eukaryotic microfossil from Cryogenian cap carbonates, Geobiology, doi: 10.1111/gbi.12225

O'reilly, S.S., Mariotti, G., Winter, A.R., Newman, S.A., Matys, E.D., McDermott, F., Pruss, S.B., Bosak, T., Summons, R.E. and Klepac‐Ceraj, V. (2017), Molecular biosignatures reveal common benthic microbial sources of organic matter in ooids and grapestones from Pigeon Cay, The Bahamas, Geobiology, 15(1), 112-130, doi: 10.1111/gbi.12196

Bosak T, Schubotz F, de Santiago-Torio A, Kuehl JV, Carlson HK, Watson N, et al. (2016) System-Wide Adaptations of Desulfovibrio alaskensis G20 to Phosphate-Limited Conditions, PLoS ONE 11(12): e0168719, doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0168719

Newman, S. A., Mariotti, G., Pruss, S., & Bosak, T. (2016), Insights into cyanobacterial fossilization in Ediacaran siliciclastic environments, Geology, 44(7), 579-582, doi: 10.1130/G37791.1

Liu, X.-L., De Santiago Torio, A., Bosak, T., and Summons, R. E. (2016) Novel archaeal tetraether lipids with a cyclohexyl ring identified in Fayetteville Green Lake, NY, and other sulfidic lacustrine settings, Rapid Commun. Mass Spectrom., 30: 1197–1205, doi: 10.1002/rcm.7549

Giulio Mariotti, Sara B. Pruss, Xuyuan Ai, J. Taylor Perron and Tanja Bosak (2016), Microbial Origin of Early Animal Trace Fossils? Journal of Sedimentary Research, April 2016, vol. 86, no. 4, 287-293, doi: 10.2110/jsr.2016.19

Cohen, P. A. and Macdonald, F. A. and Pruss, S. and Matys, E. and Bosak, T. (2015) Fossils of Putative Marine Algae from the Cryogenian Glacial Interlude of Mongolia, Palaios, vol. 30, no. 3, pp. 238-247, doi: 10.2110/palo.2014.069

Lahr, D. J. G. and Bosak, T. and Lara, E. and Mitchell, E. A. D. (2015) The Phanerozoic diversification of silica-cycling testate amoebae and its possible links to changes in terrestrial ecosystems Peerj, vol. 3, doi: 10.7717/peerj.1234

McNeil, D. H. and Schulze, H. G. and Matys, E. and Bosak, T. (2015) Raman spectroscopic analysis of carbonaceous matter and silica in the test walls of recent and fossil agglutinated foraminifera Aapg Bulletin, vol. 99, no. 6, pp. 1081-1097, doi: 10.1306/12191414093

Google Scholar Profile

Awards

Hayes Career Development Chair, MIT (2013) | UROP Faculty Mentor of the Year, MIT (2012) | The Harold E. Edgerton Award for Outstanding Achievement in Research, Teaching and Service to the MIT Community (2012) | AGU Fellow (2011) | AGU James B. Macelwane Medalist (2011) | Cecil and Ida Green Career Development Chair, MIT (2007) | The Subaru Outstanding Woman in Science Award, Geological Society of America (2007) | Microbial Sciences Initiative Fellow, Harvard University (2005-2007) | Everhart Distinguished Graduate Student Lecturer Award, California Institute of Technology (2004)