Associate Professor Tan Meng How
Associate Chair (Students) School of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering
Curiosity. This is what has brought Associate Professor Tan Meng How to where he is today – award-winning researcher and mentor to the next generation of engineers.
When he was a child, he was fascinated by how planes could fly. So, as a teenager, he built his own wind tunnel to study the aerodynamics of aircraft wings. As a young adult, he was curious about how markets and world economies functioned, which led him to take on two degrees – one in mechanical engineering, and the other, economics. A few years after that, new interests would take him to where he is today – an expert in chemical and biomedical engineering, where he applies engineering principles and design concepts to medicine and biology to build new healthcare innovations.
“Around the time I was going to Graduate School to study aeronautics, there was a lot of excitement about DNA and genomics. I was intrigued by what all the buzz was about, and I ended up switching paths to pursue a PhD in biology,” he shares.
“I remembered my parents were very worried – in their mind, I was destined to become an aeronautical engineer and then all of a sudden, I turned into a biologist! But I have no regrets. Curiosity has brought me on an interesting journey in life,” he muses.
It is this very curiosity that has made Associate Professor Tan the researcher he is today, leading to his most recent award. In 2020, he won the prestigious EMBO Global Investigator Award for work on ADAR biology, a career award from the European Molecular Biology Organization. In the previous year, he was recognised with the “Outstanding Young Principal Investigator Award” from The American Institute of Chemical Engineers – Singapore Local Section.
Associate Professor Tan shows no sign of stopping in his passion to engineer a better world through biology. Most recently, he is leading his team in developing a new COVID-19 rapid test kit. The team aims to build a kit that can not only detect the virus in just 30 minutes, but also new variants. There is also the possibility of applying the technology to other infectious diseases.
Besides enjoying the “best of both worlds” in his engineering and biology, Associate Professor Tan also values another source of fulfilment his job gives him – the opportunity to nurture young scientists and engineers. “I think my greatest accomplishment at NTU has been nurturing and helping batches of students over the past years,” he shares. “I frequently have students coming to me at the end of each semester asking for career advice. It is really a pleasure to be able to guide so many people in their life journeys. After all, the future belongs to the young,” he adds.
In 2019, Associate Professor Tan led his team of students to win the Gold Award for the iGEM competition, an international event that gives students the opportunity to push the boundaries of synthetic biology. When asked about the best part of his job, Professor Tan cites the ability to be able to enjoy the best of all worlds. Associate Professor Tan says, “On the research front, we can make new scientific discoveries to advance knowledge and translate our work into products that can further have an impact on society. On the teaching front, I can impart knowledge to students and train people to become the next generation of scientists. On the administration front, we can develop policies and systems to make our education sector better.”
