Stanley Tan

About Me

I am a Doctoral Student and Cullman Fellow pursuing my PhD at Yale University and the New York Botanical Garden. I study plant defenses and immunity against herbivores and pathogens in tropical forests. I am interested in developing products and technology to improve plant and ecosystem health for applications in agriculture, forestry, and horticulture.

Research Interests

• Plant-enemy interactions and plant defenses
• Functional genes for defense and drought response
• Effector biology

News

• [Feb 2026] I completed the Investing in Innovation Intensive at the Tsai Center for Innovative Thinking at Yale.
• [Dec 2025] I presented my work on plant herbivory defenses at the British Ecological Society’s Annual Meeting (Edinburgh, UK).
• [Aug 2025] I will serve as the Senior Fellow Ambassador of Southeast Asia for the Quad Fellowship from 2025-2026.
• [Apr 2025] I was awarded an Early Grant Award ($3000) from the Yale Institute of Biospheric Studies for my research on inducible biochemical defenses in tropical plants.
• [Aug 2024] I joined the Comita Lab at Yale University as a doctoral student and the New York Botanical Garden as a Cullman Fellow (graduate studies).
• [Jul 2024] I was selected as a Quad Fellow (Southeast Asia, 2024) for my Doctoral Studies at Yale University.
• [May 2024] I joined the United Nations Climate Change Secretariat’s Adaptation Division.
• [May 2024] I graduated from the National University of Singapore with a Bachelor of Science in Environmental Studies (First Class Honours).