About the Fellowship

The Robert P. Lin Graduate Fellowship was established in 2012 with a gift from the Lin family. It is used to support outstanding current or incoming graduate students at the University of California, Berkeley who pursue research related to space sciences, including, but not limited to students studying Physics, Astronomy, or Engineering. Recipients of the fellowship demonstrate a high level of academic distinction. Preference is given to students who pursue research projects associated with Space Sciences Laboratory (SSL). APPLYING: Graduate students from all departments on the UC Berkeley campus are eligible to apply to the Lin Fellowship. The Fellowship is also open to incoming graduate students. Interested students should send a CV, cover letter, and statement of research interests to lin.fellowship@ssl.berkeley.edu. The fellowship provides funds for summer work. The next opportunity will be summer 2023.  Applications will be considered on a rolling basis starting on March 17, 2023, and we anticipate accepting four fellows for this summer.

Prof. Lin was a long-time faculty member in the Department of Physics at UC Berkeley who served for many years as the director of SSL. Prof. Lin spent most of his career at UC Berkeley and led a revolution in our understanding of high-energy solar physics. He made pioneering discoveries of X-rays and gamma-rays from solar flares using several generations of instruments, culminating in NASA’s RHESSI mission. Lin also designed instruments to make in situ space plasma measurements and used them to measure surface magnetic and electric fields at the Moon and Mars. He was a member of the National Academy of Sciences and collaborated on many space research projects internationally. His accomplishments were many and his impact on space science at UC Berkeley was profound. Lin was an especially effective teacher and graduate advisor and this fellowship serves to underscore the importance with which he viewed higher education.