Liang Tan, assistant professor of accounting and information systems in the Pamplin College of Business at Virginia Tech, was recently named the Curling Faculty Fellow in Accounting and Information Systems by the Virginia Tech Board of Visitors.

The Curling Fellowship in Accounting and Information Systems was established in 2008 through a gift from Doug Curling, who received his bachelor’s degree and master’s degree in accounting from Virginia Tech. The fellowship is intended to help the college recruit and retain outstanding scholars in accounting and to honor Curling’s father, Calvin Curling, and uncle, James Curling, who also attended Virginia Tech.

Recipients hold the title of Curling Faculty Fellow for a period of three years.

A member of the Virginia Tech faculty since 2019, Tan is a frequently published scholar on the topics of debt contracting, corporate governance, audit, and tax avoidance. He has published nine articles in peer-reviewed journals, with six of those articles published in the most prestigious journals in the accounting field. He also serves as an ad hoc reviewer for all of the major journals in the accounting field.

Tan is also regarded as an effective classroom instructor and mentor. He teaches cost planning and control in the undergraduate program and currently serves on the dissertation committee of one student scheduled to defend their proposal this fall.

Prior to his appointment at Virginia Tech, Tan was an assistant professor of accountancy at George Washington University. He received his bachelor’s degree from Renmin University of China, a master’s degree from Tufts University, and a Ph.D. from Northwestern University.

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