Programme Director

Professor
Lin, Yuan

Background

Prof. Yuan Lin received the BS and MS degree in Engineering Mechanics from Tsinghua University in 1999 and 2001, respectively. He later obtained a MS degree in Applied Mathematics and a Ph.D. degree in Solid Mechanics from Brown University in 2008. Prof. Lin’s research interests include cellular and molecular biomechanics, tissue development and morphogenesis, and mechanics of biological and active materials. His works have been published in in top journals, including PNAS, Science Advances, Nature Communications and PRL, and received numerous reports by popular media outlets such as Science Magazine, ScienceDaily and Phys.org.

Prof. Lin has served as Chair of the Gordon Research Conference on Nano-Mechanical Interfaces as well as keynote speaker in various conferences. He is also currently serving in the editorial board of 4 international journals.

Publications

S.K. Wu, F. Sun, C.Z. Ho,..., Luo, T. Hiraiwa, Y. Lin* and B.C.. Low*. 2026. Multiscale Mechanisms Driving Tissue Rupture by Invading Cells. Developmental Cell . 61: P787-803.
J. Jing, B. Wang, Y. Luo, Y. Wang, Z. Wang, Y. Liu, D.-K. Ki, X. Shi, Q. Wang, K.H. Li*, Y. Lin* and Z. Chu*. 2026. Uncovering piezoelectric effect in polycrystalline diamond membranes. Science Advances . 12: eaea8318.
Y. Ye, Z. Hao, J. Luo, W.H. Lam, Z. Liu, X.D. Li, Y. Zhai, Y. Lin* and S.-C. Ti*. 2025. C. elegans tubulin isotypes harness the mechanosensitivity of the lattice for microtubule 2 luminal accessibility. Nature Physics . 21:1420-1430.

Q. Cui, Y. Tian, Z. Wu, L. Zhang, W.C. Cho, S. Yao and Y. Lin*. 2024. Concurrently Probing the Mechanical and Electrical Characteristics of Living Cells via an Integrated Microdevice. Nano Letters . 24: 14522-14530.

J. Jing, F. Sun, Z. Wang, L. Ma, Y. Luo, Z. Du, T. Zhang, Y. Wang, F. Xu, X. Ma, Y. He, H. Sun, X. Wang, Y. Zhou, J.K.H. Tsoi, J. Wrachtrup, N. Wong, C. Li, D.-K. Ki, Q. Wang, K.H. Li, Y. Lin* and Z. Chu*. 2024. Scalable production of ultraflat and ultraflexible diamond membrane. Nature . 636: 627-634.

F. Sun, C. Fang, X. Shao, H. Gao and Y. Lin*. 2023. A Mechanism-Based Theory of Cellular and Tissue Plasticity. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA. 120: e2305375120.

C. Fang, X. Wei, X. Shao and Y. Lin*. 2021. Force-mediated Cellular Anisotropy and Plasticity Dictate the Elongation Dynamics of Embryos. Science Advances. 7: eabg3264.