Chia-Chiao Lin

Emeritus Institute Professor
Emeritus Professor of Applied Mathematics

Chia-Chiao Lin is Institute Professor Emeritus at MIT. He received a PhD in aeronautics from Caltech in 1944 at Caltech under the supervision of the late Theodore von Karman. He completed a B.Sc in physics from Tsinghua University in 1937 and a M.A. in applied mathematics from the University of Toronto in 1941. He did postdoctoral work at the Jet Propulsion Lab before joining the faculty at Brown University in 1945. He joined the MIT Applied Mathematics faculty as associate professor in 1947. In 1966, Professor Lin was selected to be an Institute Professor.

Lin's program in fluid mechanics initially focused on hydrodynamics stability and turbulence, addressing various subjects in aerodynamics, such as gas turbines, oscillating airfoil and shock waves. Mathematically, he resolved a long-standing problem concerning the theory of asymptotic solutions of ordinary differential equations (of higher order than 2), which are uniformly valid around turning points.

His applied research interests expanded to problems in hydrodynamics of superfluid helium and astrophysics in the late 50s. In collaboration with Frank Shu (U.C. Berkeley), Lin advanced the density-wave theory of galaxy formation (based on earlier work of Bertil Lindblad), to account for the sustained spiral structures, that had been recently verified. He also contributed to related problems in gravitational collapse and star formation.

Professor Lin was very active in curricular education, developing a more comprehensive approach to applied mathematics, expounded in public lectures and through his services as President of SIAM, 1973-74, and as member of its Board of Trustees, 1978-80.

A twice Guggenheim Fellow (1954 & 1960), Lin received numorous recognitions from a variety of professional societies, including the Timoshenko Medal of the American Society of Mechanical Engineering (1975), the Award in Applied Mathematics and Numerical Analysis of the National Academy of Sciences (1977), the Fluid Dynamic Prize of the American Physical Society (1979), and the Distinguished Alumni Award from Caltech. He was the MIT Killian Lecturer in 1982.
He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1951) and Member of the National Academy of Sciences (1962).