Ying Jia Tan's research focuses on the history of energy in Modern China. His book Recharging China in War and Revolution, 1882-1955 (Cornell University Press, 2021) explores the politics of Chinese power consumption as electrical industries developed during seven decades of revolution and warfare. Thanks to generous funding from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, through The Sustainable History Monograph Pilot, the ebook editions of this book are available as Open Access volumes from Cornell Open (cornellopen.org) and other repositories.

He is currently working on a second book project on the plastic industry in Chinese East Asia in the twentieth century. 

During the 2023/2024 academic year, he is a faculty fellow with the College of the Environment ThinkTank.

Ying Jia Tan is a historian of science and technology with allied interests in environmental history and the history of cartography. He teaches traditional and modern Chinese history, as well as courses on maritime East Asia, cartography, and the Anthropocene.