A medical anthropologist, veterinarian, writer, and academic, Dr. Michael Tan served as the 10th Chancellor of the University of the Philippines Diliman (UPD) from 2014 to 2020 and is currently Professor Emeritus. He has taught in the UP from 1984 onwards and is currently Professor Emeritus. He worked with non-government community- based health organizations starting from 1975 to the present. He has authored numerous books and articles on health issues and headed several health research projects including a current project, with Wageningen University, on "embodied ecologies", how people perceive the environment in relation to their bodies and selves. Dr. Tan has also been active in gender advocacy programs throughout his involvement with community-based health organizations. In 2012, he was elected to the National Academy of Science and Technology, the country’s highest advisory body on science. He advocates public science and does this mainly through a weekly column, Gray Matters, in the Philippine Daily Inquirer, the country's largest English daily newspaper. In 2021, he was appointed president of Guang Ming College, a human sciences college where all the students are recipients of scholarships covering tuition and living expenses.