His original work allowed him to be an Assistant Professor at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in 2005. He and his group are currently developing a multidisciplinary program at the Department of Engineering Mechanics in the area of surface engineering, nanofabrication and material design.
His expertise in polymer science was implemented during prior (2002-2003) post-doctoral work in the Solid-state Electronics Laboratory at the U. Michigan. Dr. Tan and his colleagues used nanofabrication processes, such as nanoimprint and contact lithography as tools for investigating novel geometry-dependent physical phenomena in polymer nanostructures. As a post-doctoral researcher at Davis (2003-2005), his experiences in chemistry and surface science were further enriched involving the development of single electron measurements and the advancement of the capabilities of high-resolution lithography.
His original work allowed him to be an Assistant Professor at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in 2005. He and his group are currently developing a multidisciplinary program at the Department of Engineering Mechanics in the area of surface engineering, nanofabrication and material design.
Particularly for the material design component, he is investing efforts to establish a material chemistry group using “bottom-up” approach to elucidate the structure of surfaces and interfaces. He is aiming at the following areas: synthesizing novel molecules for the preparation of self-assembly, including monolayers; creating fundamental frameworks to understand the bonding at interfaces; and incorporating enhanced functionalities, such as electrical or biological functions into thin films. This multidisciplinary program allowed them to work on a variety of research topics such as photo-responsive polymers and structures, combinatorial approach of micro fuel cells, as well as to develope an embossing/imprinting based nanolithography. These projects are supported by multiple funding sources such as NSF MRSEC Seed, Nebraska EPSCoR First Award, Research Council and Nebraska Center for Energy Science Research (NCESR). With the opportunity of accessing a variety of polymer nanostructures, he is also extending his group’s research capability into an important and untapped area: interpretation of polymer structure stability at nanometer scale. This activity should have a strong impact to the general nanomanufacturing community.
In addition to research, Dr. Tan strongly believes in the importance of teaching at universities, which is not only a great channel to pass on knowledge, but also critical to stimulate interests and motivate discoveries. He has been an undergraduate and graduate instructor and greatly enjoyed interacting with students. Starting from Spring 2007, he is offering a senior undergraduate/graduate class of “Structural, mechanical and chemical properties of nanostructures and nanomaterials” (ENGM 491/891).
(Spring 2007)
