He was appointed as the Head of the Life Sciences Department in March 2012. Dr Tan has been serving as the Research Coordinator for the SPHS since 2008. Prior to joining IMU, Dr Tan worked as a post-doctoral fellow at the University of Malaya where he also obtained his doctorate degree in the year 2005. Prior to this, he obtained his BSc from Murdoch University, Western Australia in 1996 and Master of Biotechnology from the University of Malaya in 2000.