Shao Jie Tan
Materials Engineering
School of Materials Science & Engineering
Summary
I am a research engineer with 6 years of working experience in academia, specializing in nanotechnology and nanomedicine. My research experiences includes cell culture, 3D bioprinting, nanomedicine as well as waste valorization from biomass. Eventually, my desire to play an even more active role towards sustainability led me to join a lithium-ion battery recycling company as a Laboratory Analyst where I set up and managed the laboratory operations from scratch. I was also involved in designing both training and educational courses for both staff and visitors and my direct contribution towards company sales allowed me to be promoted to Laboratory Manager. Aside from my main job in quality analysis and control, I also offer my services as a career consultant, reviewing my clients resumes and cover letters and preparing them for industry-specific interviews. Recently I have acquired qualifications both as a behavioral consultant as well as a career coach so that I am able to add value to my clients via a mutual understanding of their leadership style and behavioral attitudes.
Featured Skills
Work Experience
Laboratory Manager Mar 2024 - Nov 2024
Se-cure Waste Management Pte. Ltd Singapore• Employed ICP-OES to perform qualitative and quantitative analyses on the metal composition of lithium-ion battery derivatives from collected samples, directly contributing the sales department’s pricing decisions, ensuring accurate and competitive market positioning.
• Spearheaded the establishment of the company’s functional laboratory, resulting in significant cost savings of approximately $80,000 over an 8-month period by reducing outsourcing costs.
• Played a key role in maintaining product quality by collaborating with cross-departmental managers to ensure compliance with industry standards and best practices. Led efforts to uphold stringent quality control measures, enhancing overall product quality and reliability.
Project Officer Aug 2018 - Aug 2020
Nanyang Technological University SingaporeWorking on a novel 3D Bioprinting Project in a collaboration between NTU and A*Star alongside post-doctorates as a Project Officer in the Laboratory for Cell-Material Interactions.
My contributions to the project include:
• Conducting physiochemical characterizations of natural and synthetic bio-inks.
• Evaluating and utilizing the aforementioned bio-inks to mimic extracellular matrices and promote the cyto-structural growth of 3D cell colonies.
• Operating and maintaining 3D bioprinters for bioprinting and cell culture experiments.
• Exploring new bio-ink formulations for cell-culture.
In addition, my career has allowed me to gain experience in the following:
• Cell Culture (Human and Animal)
• Cell Staining Protocols
• Drafting and Editing of Research Papers
• Good Laboratory Practices (GLP)
• Fabrication of Naturally-Derived Hydrogels
• Material Synthesis and Characterization (Organic and Inorganic Materials)
• Purchase-To-Payment (P2P) Product Procurement Processes
• 3D Bioprinting (Natural and Synthetic Bioinks)
Career Consultant Aug 2017 - Present
Self-Employed SingaporeResearch and Development Intern Mar 2017 - Jul 2017
Fresenius Medical Care (Shanghai) Co. Ltd SingaporeInterned at Fresenius Medical Care RD (Shanghai) Co., Ltd for a period of 21 weeks.
• Brainstormed with a team of RD engineers on ways to improve on designs of new and existing medical devices through materials selection to reduce carbon footprints during production, adhering to ISO standards.
• Oversaw manufacturing and delivery of prototypes from manufacturing plants in Changshu, China to the RD centre for five months.
• Designed and performed laboratory tests to determine multiple mechanical properties including tensile strength and welding strength of over 500 different dialysis bags, making use of laboratory equipment such as the Instron Tensile Tester and restraining plates (ASTM F2054).
• Documented and arranged confidential experimental data for teleconference meetings with RD centres based in France and Germany for five months.
• Entrusted with compiling confidential company protocols, documents and data for external auditors during a three-day annual company audit.
• Submitted three proposals to streamline local employee training methods and reducing manpower required for logistics management to the HR department.
Translator Dec 2011 - Dec 2021
Self-Employed SingaporeTranslates Japanese Novels to English for the web community from 2011 to 2015.
Translates Chinese Web Novels for Volare Novels since 2017.
Translated requested documents from Chinese to English.
Bilingual in English and Chinese with limited proficiency in Japanese
Education
Masters Student (Material Science) Aug 2020 - Aug 2022
Nanyang Technological University SingaporeBachelor of Engineering (Material Science) Aug 2014 - May 2018
Nanyang Technological University SingaporeOther Skills
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Q&A with Shao Jie Tan
What sacrifices have you had to make to succeed in this field, and do you feel the sacrifices were worth it?
In a research career, ones innovation and creativity is limited by the grant/scholarship that was given and defined by the organization that is responsible for their employment. As an employee that was employed under a grant involving 3D bioprinting, I was expected to not deviate too much from the project scope that was predefined and explained by my employer. Nonetheless, I must admit that academic organizations like NTU are more flexible in the sense that professors do not mind allowing employees to explore or present new ideas provided that they do not exceed the budget by a large margin.
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- Posted 4 years ago
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What area are you most interested in regarding your current career?
I am currently interested in the potential of nanotechnology and how the fusion of biomedical knowledge and nano-scale material design can be properly implemented to deliver drugs to afflicted areas of a medical patient, to print functional, complex organs from cells or even potentially allow patients to regrow bones at an improved rate.
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What is your personal goal in your profession?
To develop a piece of technology that would be immediately relevant or translatable to societys immediate medical (anti-cancer) or environmental problems (closed-loop recycling/green engineering).
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- Posted 4 years ago
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If you were a college student again, what would you do differently to prepare you for your field?
I definitely deviated from my studies too much to pursue co-curricular activities, which in turn impacted my grades and limited my university options and closed possibilities for scholarship awards. If I had an opportunity to go back, I would definitely be more strict on myself and focus more time and effort on my weaker subjects.
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- Posted 4 years ago
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What did you do to make yourself marketable?
As a junior research employee, the circuit breaker imposed from March 2020 to June 2020 was crippling to everyone in the industry due to the entry ban to the labs to continue our research. Aside from keeping up with the current research trends by reading scientific journals and articles, I have also signed up with education websites such as Udemy and Coursera, enrolling in courses of personal interest (Forensic Sciences) as well as career relevance (Material Data Science, Programming, Autocad)
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- Posted 4 years ago
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What excites you about the industry you are in?
Being in the research and development industries allows me to brainstorm with a large number of creative and intelligent individuals capable of bringing forth a large number of new ideas or plausible theories. It excites me to know that I can be one of the first to witness scientific discoveries that could benefit the global community in the near future.
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