Contributing Institution: Special Collections & Archives, UC San Diego

Title: S. C. Lin Papers

Creator: Lin, S. C. (Shao-Chi)

Identifier/Call Number: MSS 0788

Physical Description: 7.2 Linear feet (18 archives boxes)

Date (inclusive): 1945-1991

Abstract: Papers of Shao-Chi Lin, Professor Emeritus of Engineering at UC San Diego. Lin was an internationally renowned engineer who specialized in gas dynamics. He helped found the 21st Century China Center in the School of Global Policy and Strategy (GPS) at UC San Diego, and served as a professor of engineering physics in the Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering Sciences (AMES) Department.

Languages: English , Chinese .

The S.C. Lin papers include a small selection of biographical files, personal and professional correspondence, Lin's writings, his teaching materials from UC San Diego's Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering Sciences (AMES) Department, grants and contracts, and supporting research.

Arranged in six series: 1) BIOGRAPHICAL MATERIALS, 2) CORRESPONDENCE, 3) WRITINGS, 4) RESEARCH, 5) TEACHING FILES, and 6) MISCELLANEOUS.

Shao-Chi Lin earned his undergraduate degree from National Central University in Chongqing, China in 1946. He completed postgraduate work at the Chinese Air Force Technical School in Chengdu, China, and graduated with top honors from the 17th Advanced Class in 1947. Before coming to the United States, Lin served in the Bureau of Aircraft Industry, Nanking, China, as a research engineer for the Chinese Air Force. He went on to earn his Ph.D. in aerospace engineering from Cornell University in 1952, where he completed research in the fields of supersonic and hypersonic aerodynamics, gas dynamics, and the physics of high temperature gases. Lin was then appointed acting assistant professor in the Graduate School of Aeronautics, Cornell University in 1954. The following year, Lin joined the Avco-Everett Research Laboratory in Everett, Massachusetts as a principal research scientist and advisor to the director. He stayed with this laboratory for nearly a decade before being recruited to UC San Diego by Professor Sol Penner in 1964, where he joined the newly formed Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering Sciences (AMES) Department as a professor of engineering physics. In 1966, Lin became the fifth scientist to receive the Annual Research Award from the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics for his "basic research in the electromagnetic properties of ionized gases, and for significant contributions in reentry physics." He also served as an associate director of the Institute for Pure and Applied Physical Sciences (IPAPS) at UC San Diego beginning in 1972. In 2011, Lin and his wife, Lily, helped to found the 21st Century China Center in the School of Global Policy and Strategy (GPS) at UC San Diego, an establishment meant to "produce and disseminate impactful evidence-based research about China, and to enhance U.S.-China mutual understanding by advancing scholarly collaboration, convening policy discussions, and actively communicating with policymakers and the general public in both countries." Professor Lin passed away on October 8, 2020.

S. C. Lin Papers. MSS 788. Special Collections & Archives, UC San Diego.

Acquired 2016

Publication rights are held by the creator of the collection.