Soon Guan Tan

 Professor of department of Cell and Molecular Biology, Faculty of Biotechnology and Biomolecular Sciences, Universiti Putra Malaysia in Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia

 Tan Soon Guan is a Malaysian of Baba Chinese ancestry born in Malacca, Malaysia in 1947. His primary and secondary education was at the Anglo Chinese School, Malacca and his Form 6 education was at the High School, Malacca. In 1968 he started to read for his undergraduate degree at the University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur and graduated with a BSc (Honours) degree in Genetics in 1971. In 1972 he was awarded an East West Center Fellowship to read for a postgraduate degree at the University of Hawaii, Honolulu, Hawaii, USA. He graduated with a PhD degree in Genetics in 1975 and also obtained a Certificate in Population Studies from the same university in 1975. He was appointed as a Lecturer in the Department of Biology, Faculty of Science and Environmental Studies, Universiti Pertanian Malaysia (now known as Universiti Putra Malaysia) in 1976, promoted to Associate Professor in 1986 and then to Professor in 1995.Currently he is serving in the Department of Cell and Molecular Biology, Faculty of Biotechnology and Biomolecular Sciences, Universiti Putra Malaysia in Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia. He was first appointed as the Chief Editor of the Pertanika Journal of Tropical Agricultural Science in 1997 and reappointed in 2006 and 2008.

 His field of specialization is Genetics and he has taught students at the diploma, degree and postgraduate levels at Universiti Putra Malaysia. His research interest is in the field of Molecular Population Genetics. His research activities are mainly on the applications of biochemical and molecular polymorphisms for the characterisation of the various genera, species, varieties, races, breeds, strains and populations of Southeast Asia's animals and plants. During the course of over 35 years of research work he has been involved in projects on humans, insects, birds, fishes, mussels, marine turtles, shrimps, giant freshwater prawns, buffaloes, goats, oil palm, mung bean and fungi. He collaborated with many researchers from several countries for example Malaysia, USA, Thailand and Australia and his research work had been funded by various sources such as the Intensification of Research in Priority Areas (IRPA) programme and eScience fund of the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation, Malaysia, Fundamental Research Grant Scheme of the Ministry of Higher Education, Malaysia, Research University Grant Scheme, Universiti Putra Malaysia, the Departments of Wildlife and Fisheries of Malaysia, the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR), Rockerfeller Foundation of the USA, University of California, San Francisco's International Center for Medical Research, World Health Organization and the National Institutes of Health, USA.. The results of his research work can be found in over 350 papers published in international and national scientific journals, conference proceedings, bulletins and book chapters. He is a member of the Malaysian Nature Society, the Malaysian Society of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, the Society for the Advancement of Breeding Researches in Asia and Oceania, the Genetics Society of Malaysia and the Fisheries Society of Malaysia. In 2000, he was awarded the Johan Setia Mahkota (J.S.M.) (Order of Chivalry, Third Class) on the occasion of the Birthday of His Majesty Yang diPertuan Agong (King) of Malaysia.