The Queen of Chemistry

By Isabella Dale

Dr. Julie Tan drove with composure to Dairy Queen. As she smoothly stops at every red light, her gentle voice floats across to the passenger side; the informal interview which nonchalantly started in the front seat of her minivan slowly became directed to the interviewer. Detailed inquiries fired back; her eyes lit up. She wanted to know about the questioner more than she had the need to speak of herself. 

She orders a small mint blizzard and sits down in the ice cream parlour. An unwavering aura of calmness radiates from her presence. A skill that can only be mastered by two things: the glory of age, and the knowledge of hardship. When asked what she wanted to gain most out of her trip to America all those years ago, a reminiscing smile creeps through her lips and she says with conviction, “I wanted to do physics. Physics was my passion.”

Dr. Tan, a chemistry professor at the University of the Cumberlands, had a love for physics. And like so many of us, her life was meticulously planned out as an adolescent. She knew where she wanted to go and who she wanted to be, although the end product was not at all a result of those plans. “I was supposed to go to Christchurch,” she said with a distant look of recollection, “but plans changed and here I am.” 

She was to travel to New Zealand to continue her education post high school graduation, with no plans at all to come to America. Events changed after her sister-in-law, a graduate from UC in the field of Chemistry herself, met Dr.Tan in the summer before her freshman year of college and suggested that she instead choose Williamsburg, KY as her final destination. After a night of careful consideration of her future and the positive support of family members, she rearranged her path, changing her destiny in a split second. 

Arriving in America was not at all simple for Dr. Tan, “I struggled,” she claimed, as the blizzard cupped in the palm of her hand begins to melt into watery soup, “everything up to this point I had learned in my native language, so it was like re-learning everything all over again.” 

She had to prove herself tremendously through academics, where she later on excelled from hard work and perseverance, something she was able to achieve through late nights and countless hours studying in the library. She reminisces about the time she roomed with a music major: “There was a constant stream of singing in the room, as that was basically all she had to do,” giggles Dr. Tan, “so I would say I spent most nights studying in the hallway.” 

As a professor in Chemistry at UC, Dr. Julie Tan is the director of the Chemistry department’s Alchemist club, a member of the American Chemical Society (Division of Organic Chemistry and Chemical Education), and has also been a part of the publication of The Journal of Organic Chemistry and The Tetrahedron Letters. 

After graduating from UC in only two and a half years with a double major in chemistry and CIS, a process in which she was forced to finally wave goodbye to her physics dreams for good, Dr. Tan then went on to pursue her doctorate’s degree in Chemistry at the University of Tennessee. This process of further education took her four rigorous years to complete, during which time her husband, Dr. Chin Tan, a business professor and seasoned tennis coach at UC, received a teaching post while waiting for her to complete her studies. He had also pursued further education, completing his degree and receiving his MBA in a shockingly impressive span of only nine months after undergraduate education.

“The moment I set eyes on her I knew she would one day be my wife,” reminisces Dr. Chin Tan. He tells a story of when they were children in primary school. “I admired her from a distance in the playground for years but it took her until high school to know who I was.” Eventually, her husband’s charm and perseverance paid off, and Dr. Tan claims she fell head over heels for his honesty and humour.

As she nibbles politely at her melted ice cream, scraping up memories of her past and telling stories of her life, the topic of her husband regularly enters the conversation. It soon becomes clear that there is a strong unspoken admiration between the two of them. When asked what the secret to a happy marriage was, Dr. Chin Tan claims: “A happy wife means a happy life, that is my motto.” After 30 odds years of marriage and two kind-hearted sons, William and Christian, the Tans appear to be the ultimate role-models of a happy and genuine family. 

“The one word I would use to describe my life would be gratified,” says Dr. Tan as she finally finishes her watered down ice cream. For most, when events in one’s life pan out in the least expected way possible, a sense of failure and regret overwhelms the mind. In Dr. Tan’s case, she rose up to the challenge, and evidently still rises up to the multiple challenges that life throws her way. “Everyone has problems,” she explains in her soft, peaceful tone that soothes you to the core, “but you will always think you are the only one. The secret is to know that you are not alone in this struggle.”