Magnus Ivarsson

Natural Sciences Fellow, SCAS.
Associate Professor of Paleobiology, Swedish Museum of Natural History, Stockholm

Magnus Ivarsson received his Ph.D. in Geology and Geochemistry at Stockholm University in
2008. During the following years he was a postdoctoral fellow at the Swedish Museum of Natural
History and the University of Southern Denmark. Currently, Ivarsson is Associate Professor of
Paleobiology at the Swedish Museum of Natural History.

Ivarsson’s research is on the deep biosphere fossil record of the continental and oceanic crust.
He is responsible for key findings with respect to deep fossils, including the first reliable fungal
fossils from both the oceanic and continental crust, the first fungal-prokaryote symbiotic relation-
ship from deep settings, the first reliable microbial fossils from an impact crater, and the oldest
fungal-like fossils (2.4 Ga) in the ancient oceanic crust. He has also made significant progress
with respect to the prokaryotic fossil record and the microbial community structure of strictly
anaerobic consortia, as well as put forward the astrobiological importance of fossils in deep
igneous rock.

Ivarsson has published extensively on fossilised microorganisms in deep and extreme environments,
including the following articles of particular relevance to his work at SCAS: Ivarsson et al., (2020)
Earth Science Reviews, 210, 103342; Drake et al., (2019) Nature Communications, 10:4736; Bengtson
et al., (2017) Nature Ecology & Evolution, 1: 0141; Ivarsson et al., (2012) Geology, 40, 163-166.

At SCAS, Ivarsson will investigate meteorite impact craters as biological systems and interplanetary
habitats. The aim is to deepen the understanding of life’s duration in impact craters, and their im-
portance in upcoming missions dedicated to the search for life on other planets, including future
manned missions to Mars.


This information is accurate as of the academic year 2021-22.