TAIT LAB

Thesis: A “Shocking” Investigation into Life on Mars:  Examination of the Structural and Chemical Effects of Shock in Hydrous Phases in Martian Meteorites 

As a Graduate Student/Research Assistant, Tanya's work included completing detailed petrographic and geochemical investigations of rare Martian meteorites. She is specifically interested in the “shocking” effects that impacts can have on the isotopic and chemical compositions of phosphate minerals in Martian meteorites. Phosphates have been studied extensively as reservoirs of water and geochronometers, but they are also thought to be the main source of bio-essential phosphorous for potential life on Mars. The goal of her project was to establish a correlation between the microstructural state of phosphates and their chemical and isotopic compositions; allowing for more accurate predictions of phosphorous bio-availability, water content, water origin, and age determinations in Martian rocks. 

 Tanya is passionate about science communication and outreach and has been a speaker and organizer of several science outreach events tailored to the general public.

Thesis: Using Highly Siderophile Elements in Ureilites to Better Understand Asteroid Formation Processes  

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Planetary mineralogist and geochemist

Thesis: Early Meteoritic Records of Asteroidal Melt and Impact Environments 

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Project description: Shoots meteorites with lasers, electron beams, and X-rays. 

The best part of his project: Gets to shoot meteorites with lasers, electron beams, and X-rays. 

Hobbies: Movies, animal care, running, and shooting meteorites with lasers, electron beams, and X-rays. 

Worst qualities: Repetitive, repetitive, repetitive. 

Lee gained his PhD from the University of Portsmouth (UK) in 2017 before his position as a postdoctoral research fellow at the ROM.  His research interests revolve around generating accurate ages for the planetary bodies in our Solar System, helping to untangle the history of Mars, the Moon, and large asteroids like Vesta. He accomplishes this by combining structural data for minerals with targeted dating techniques to better interpret generated ages, and more recently by extracting nanoscale domains of minerals for more refined analysis. 

Ian was a technician at the ROM for over 35 years doing a wide variety of work in the Earth Sciences. In the past 20 years, he focused mainly on the growth of the mineralogy collection, but also of the ROM's increasingly important collection of meteorites.