Dr. Tan has served as Distinguished Engineer, Fellow, Chief Engineer-Power Conversion, Program Manager, Department Manager, and Center Director in a US Fortune 500 corporation. Don earned his PhD from Caltech and is an IEEE fellow. Unusually prolific as a visionary technical leader in ultra-efficient power conversion and electronic energy systems, he has pioneered breakthrough innovations with numerous high-impact industry firsts and record performances that received commendations from the highest level of US Government. He has developed hundreds of designs and thousands of hardware units deployed for space applications without a single on-orbit failure. His suite of world-class electronics performed flawlessly on the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), located one million miles away, achieving world-record-breaking performances.

He is currently the President of IEEE Transportation Electrification Council, Chair of IEEE Fellow Advisory and Oversight Subcommittee, and Vice Chair of IEEE Industry Engagement Committee. Among numerous others, Don has served as Division II Director, IEEE Board of Directors; Fellow Committee Chair, IEEE PELS/PES eGrid Steering Committee Chair, PELS Long Range Planning Committee Chair, Nomination Committee Chair, PELS President, Editor-in-Chief (Founding) for IEEE Journal of Emerging and Selected Topics in Power Electronics, APEC (the fourth largest event in IEEE) General Chair, PELS Vice President-Operations, Guest Editor-in-Chief for IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics and IEEE Transactions on Industry Applications, Fellow Committee, PELS Vice President-Meetings, IEEE Chair for IEEE/Google Little Box Challenge (awarded $1M cash prize), and IEEE/DoD Working Group Chair, developed IEEE/ANSI standards 1515/1573. Don has delivered 80+ keynotes/invited global presentations. He has received more than $30M external customer funding for research and technology development. He also serves on many national and international award, review and selection committees.