Li Tan is an assistant professor of engineering education systems and design in the Polytechnic School at Arizona State University. As an interdisciplinary researcher, Tan's research centers on understanding pathways to academic success for students of all demographic and socioeconomic backgrounds with a focus on postsecondary success in engineering fields. Tan’s expertise in causal identification with observational data and quantitative methods with longitudinal datasets has resulted in several publications in top-tier journals, such as American Educational Research Journal, Research in Higher Education, Journal of Research on Educational Effectiveness, Journal of Educational and Behavioral Statistics, and three publications in the Journal of Engineering Education.