Assoc. Prof. Tan Lai Yong is a medical doctor by training. He graduated from NUS in 1985.  In 1996, he and his family relocated to Yunnan, China, where he was involved in poverty alleviation, community development and training of village health workers. They stayed in Yunnan from 1996 to 2010.

On returning, Dr. Tan was awarded a scholarship to do the Masters in Public Admin at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy. He said that the most memorable essay that he submitted as course work in an "Energy and Environment" module was about harnessing methane gas from cow dung, a topic that classmates were not so familiar with.

He joined the College of Alice and Peter Tan (CAPT) as a Resident Fellow in 2012, in the pioneering days of the college. He was CAPT's Director for Outreach and Community Engagement from 2012 to 2020. He also taught short courses at the Division of Family Medicine of the YLLSOM (NUS).

Dr. Tan was given the NUS Annual Teaching Excellence Award in the AY 2012/13. As a 3-time recipient of the Residential Colleges Teaching Excellence Award, Dr. Tan was given the NUS Residential Colleges Teaching Excellence Award Honour Roll.

He is married with 2 grown children. He enjoys the outdoors, has taken part in several Wilderness Medicine trainings courses and have led about 10 NUS STEER trips to places like Botswana, China, India and Myanmar.