Professor Tang leads the Soil-Plant Interactions Group based at the internationally-recognised Centre for AgriBioscience (AgriBio) on the University’s Melbourne Campus. He has 30-year experience in plant-soil interactions, rhizosphere biochemistry and nutrient acquisition, soil acidity and acidification, subsoil constraints, and nutrient dynamics in agro-ecosystems. He has extensively published his research in leading international journals, which has attracted 23,600+ citations with an H-index of 78 (Google Scholar).

Tang has successfully supervised/co-supervised 50+ Honours and 36 PhD students, and many postdoc fellows/visiting scientists in the last 15 years. Many PhD graduates have received various awards including the Nancy Millis Prize, CG Stephens PhD award and Aristotle Education Award. Tang is also the coordinator of the core subject AGR3LS (Land and Soil Management). He has received the Dean’s award (2005) and Vice-Chancellor’s commendation (2007) for teaching excellence and the Inaugural University Excellence in Research Supervision Award (2019).

Professor Tang was elected as a Fellow of Soil Science Australia in 2018. He is currently an associate editor of Earth Critical Zone, consulting editor of "Plant and Soil" (2001-), associate editor of "Crop & Pasture Science" (2007-) and subject editor of "Journal of Soils & Sediments" (2007-), and referees papers for 30+ international journals.