Managing family and professional life is a challenge — particularly for Tan, who had to decide between going back to Indonesia to be closer to his family after earning his undergraduate degree in the U.S., or staying and pursuing his doctoral degree. A research specialist at 3M, Tan is happy he chose to stay in the U.S. to further his education, saying, “There is always a happy medium.” Living in the U.S. came with language challenges, which Tan overcame by “forcing myself to not be shy and interact with other English-speaking people around me” — growth and development he reflects on with pride.
Dealing with tough personal challenges has made Tan resilient, and he says he is not afraid to “fail fast, and fail often.” This willingness to push boundaries has helped him to earn praise at 3M, where he is involved in R&D in the areas of melt blowing and nonwoven materials. At 3M, he invented a new process technology related to blown microfibers (BMF) that has been scaled into worker safety products and systems.