Dr. Tzer Tan

Biography

Tzer Han Tan is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Physics at the University of California, San Diego. His research focuses on the remarkable capacities of living matter to grow, organize, heal, and move, stemming from the ability to convert energy at a molecular scale to generate macroscopic organized motion and emergent structures. His lab's overarching vision is to understand the nonequilibrium forces that lead to spatiotemporal organization in living matter, and how biological regulation harnesses the self-organizing capacity to create functional forms. His work draws inspiration from physics concepts related to active matter, nonlinear dynamics, and out-of-equilibrium statistical mechanics. By utilizing a variety of model systems, including marine invertebrate embryos and mammalian organoids, his lab combines quantitative imaging and creative data analysis in collaboration with theorists to study the physical basis of biological organization.

Research Interests