UC Berkeley Web Feature

Professor emeritus T.Y. Lin, innovative structural engineer, dies at 91

17 November 2003

BERKELEY – At the age of 91, innovative structural engineer T.Y. Lin has died at his home in El Cerrito. The UC Berkeley professor emeritus of civil engineering is known for pioneering the use of pre-stressed concrete, now used in construction worldwide. He also achieved worldwide renown for innovative design projects, including the Moscone Convention Center in San Francisco.

T.Y. Lin

Born in China, Lin earned his master's degree from UC Berkeley in 1933 and, at the age of 25, returned to China to become chief bridge engineer for the Chungking-Chengdu Railway system, helping to build more than a thousand bridges across China.

In the 1960s, he conceived the idea of a "Peace Bridge" across the Bering Strait linking Alaska and Russia. In 1986, he proposed that bridge to President Ronald Reagan as Reagan presented him with the National Medal of Science, honoring Lin as one of the nation's leading scientists for his advances in structural engineering.

Lin retired from UC Berkeley in 1976 to devote more time to leading T. Y. Lin International, a San Francisco-based structural engineering firm he had founded in 1954. Lin left the firm in 1992 after it was sold and formed Lin Tung-Yen China, Inc.

Despite his retirement, Lin and his wife, Margaret, remained devoted supporters of UC Berkeley. In 1988, they donated their home, designed by Lin, to endow the T. Y. and Margaret Lin Chair in Engineering and a College of Engineering dean's discretionary fund.

A full UC Berkeley press release about Lin's life will appear on the NewsCenter Tuesday (Nov. 18).