Maurita Tanj

Maurita Tanj was a joined Trill scientist affiliated with the Federation in the 24th century.

Sometime prior to 2385, Maurita Tanj graduated with a major in xenosociology and met longtime friend Katherine Pulaski. The two teamed up on a project, from which they won many awards. Originally, Pulaski had greatly been against working with Tanj, as she was experienced in social science, not medical science like Pulaski, who thought social science wasn't anything worth getting into.

Later in her career, in 2385, Maurita Tanj once again met up with Pulaski for another project: the Athene Donald. Pulaski came with the idea of peace through exploration and science, an idea Tanj greatly admired, causing her to intercede on her behalf and ask the Rosalind Franklin Institute for Biomedical Research to commission a state-of-the-art science vessel for the mission. Although it was Pulaski's idea, she felt and was generally thought as, not the most friendly person and therefore may not be able to pitch the idea with the right amount of enthusiasm. Thus, Tanj asked and had the project approved, with her acting as project director and de facto commanding officer of the Athene Donald.

On the ship's first mission, Tanj was faced with the issue of new addition Commander Peter Alden, Starfleet Intelligence agent and Tzenkethi specialist. Pulaski, with her dislike of "spooks" and suspicion Alden was merely there to spy on the foreign powers and the resident Tzenkethi Metiger Ter Yai-A. Pulaski felt this went against the ship's mission and therefore made it her mission to convince Tanj to get rid of him, but Tanj was able to get them both to stop getting into confrontations. Also on the first mission, the ship made first contact with a foreign power known as the Chain, who prevented the ship from going anywhere. It was later found the Chain were after the People of the Open Sky, who had recently stopped at Deep Space 9 (II) and were suspected of abducting children and keeping them from proper care. Tanj later authorized Pulaski and Alden to beam aboard the enemy ship and take DNA samples, after it was found a member of the same species as the Chain had committed a murder of a People of the Open Sky member back on DS9. Not long before beaming over, it was determined the People of the Open Sky were an offshoot of the Chain and therefore the same species. Thus, the DNA from the Chain was required to map out the DNA of the Chain species, leading to the solving of the murder on DS9.