Robert Peichung Lin (Chinese:林伯中;pinyin:Lín Bózhōng; January 24, 1942 – November 17, 2012) was a Chinese-born American astrophysicist. He was a professor and director of theSpace Sciences Laboratory (1998–2008) at theUniversity of California, Berkeley. As a pioneer of gamma-ray astronomy and of particle detection in space, his research was fundamental to the development of our knowledge insolar physics, the physics of thesolar wind and of themagnetosphere.He was the principal investigator for theReuven Ramaty High Energy Solar Spectroscopic Imager.^[1]

Robert Lin was the son ofTung Hua Lin.^[2] He was born inGuangxi, China on January 24, 1942, and moved toLondon as a child and then toMichigan. He earned a Bachelor of Science degree in physics from theCalifornia Institute of Technology in 1962 and a Ph.D. from theUniversity of California, Berkeley in 1967.^[1]

Lin remained at his PhD institution, theUniversity of California, Berkeley, for his entire career, and was a main contributor to the success of itsSpace Sciences Laboratory, becoming its director.

His research focused on experimental space physics and high-energy astrophysics. He made major contributions to topics involving solar flares, plasma phenomena in the Earth's magnetosphere, lunar and planetary geology, heliospheric physics, and high-energy astrophysics. In 2006, Lin was elected to theNational Academy of Sciences for his contributions to the "behavior of electrons and ions accelerated by the sun, and detected the accompanying x-ray and gamma-ray emissions."^[3]

Lin suffered a sudden stroke on November 17, 2012, and died atAlta Bates Medical Center, aged 70.^[1]

This article about an American physicist is astub. You can help Wikipedia byexpanding it.

• v
• t
• e

• 1942 births
• 2012 deaths
• 20th-century American physicists
• 21st-century American physicists
• American astrophysicists
• American people of Chinese descent
• California Institute of Technology alumni
• Educators from Guangxi
• Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences
• Physicists from Guangxi
• Tsien family
• University of California, Berkeley College of Letters and Science faculty
• UC Berkeley College of Letters and Science alumni
• Fellows of the American Physical Society
• American physicist stubs

• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Articles with hCards
• Articles containing Chinese-language text
• All stub articles