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In Memoriam: Dr. Rick Lin

Published on Thursday, January 19, 2017

Published on January 19, 2017

UMMC leadership extends its sympathy to the family of a former member of the Medical Center faculty in appreciation for their loved ones' contributions to the academic health sciences center.

Rick C. S. Lin, Ph.D.

Dr. Rick C. S. Lin, professor of neurobiology and anatomical sciences, professor of psychiatry and human behavior, professor of pediatrics and executive director of the Center for Development Disorders Research, died Jan. 11. He was 71.

A funeral service for Lin will take place Jan. 21 at Pinelake Baptist Church in Brandon. Memorials may be made to Batson Children's Hospital or to Pinelake Church.

Dr. Ian A. Paul, professor of psychiatry and human behavior and director of medical student education, called Lin an “outstanding and productive scientist” who “was well-loved both at UMMC and internationally.”

“More importantly, he was a kind, gentle man with a deep love of friends and family,” Paul said. “His love and concern for children caused him to establish CDDR and we plan to continue his legacy.

“His intelligence, enthusiasm, friendship and generosity will be remembered by all who knew him.”

A 1968 graduate of Fu Jen Catholic University, Tapei, Taiwan, Lin came to the U.S. and earned his M.A. in marine biology at Duke University in 1971 and his Ph.D. in neutoanatomy at Vanderbilt University in 1976. He had a postdoctoral fellowship in neurophysiology at the University of Virginia from 1976-79.

He joined the University of Texas Health Science Center faculty in 1979 as an assistant professor of cell biology before returning to the Duke University Medical Center two years later as an assistant professor of anatomy. He became an assistant professor of neurobiology at Duke in 1987 before joining the Hahnemann University faculty the following year as an associate professor of physiology and biophysics. He later served as a professor of physiology and biophysics and a professor of neurobiology and anatomy at Hahnemann University. From 1996-98, he was a professor of neurobiology and anatomy at Allegheny University. He joined the UMMC faculty in 1999.

Lin was among a handful of investigators to receive the highly prestigious Exceptional Unconventional Research Enabling Knowledge Acceleration (EUREKA) Grant and reviewed grants for the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation and edited the to-selling book, New Concepts in Cerebral Ischemia. He also served as an associate editor for the Anatomical Record.

Lin taught neurobiology to countless medical students and provided training and mentorship to graduate students in the Ph.D. programs in anatomy and in neuroscience. In 2014, he received the M2 Professor of the Year Award and was awarded numerous faculty research honors. The author or coauthor of more than 35 major articles in peer-reviewed scientific publications, Lin's research interests included sensory information processing; cortical network writing and re-writing after insults; developmental plasticity; and neurodegeneration and protection.