Peter Tsai is a Taiwanese-American inventor and material scientist who is best known for inventing and patenting improved meltblown filtration manufacturing techniques, used in respirators, like N95 respirators, a 1995 NIOSH standard made to address the shortcomings of USBM standards. He is an expert in the field of nonwoven fabric. Tsai was a professor emeritus at the University of Tennessee, but ended his retirement during the COVID-19 pandemic to research mask and respirator sterilization.