Song Lin grew up in Tianjin, China. After obtaining B.S. from Peking University in 2008, Song embarked on his graduate studies at Harvard University working with Eric Jacobsen. He then carried out postdoctoral studies with Chris Chang at UC Berkeley. In 2016, Song started his independent career at Cornell University and was promoted to Associate Professor in 2021 and Tisch University Professor in 2023. In 2026, he joined Stanford University as a Professor of Chemistry.
Song has received several early career awards, including the Sloan Fellowship, ACS Cope Scholar, National Fresenius Award, Tetrahedron Young Investigator Award, Cottrell Scholar Award, Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award, NSF CAREER Award, MIT Technology Review Innovators Under 35, BMS Unrestricted Grant, Lilly Research Award, and EPA Green Chemistry Challenge. He is also a recipient of the Nobel Laureate Signature Award for Graduate Education in Chemistry and Stephen and Margery Russell Distinguished Teaching Award. He is currently a Senior Editor at Accounts of Chemical Research and serves on the Editorial Advisory Board of Chem, Synlett, Tetrahedron, and Tetrahedron Letters as well as the Scientific Advisory Board of OWiC Technologies.
The Lin Laboratory’s research lies at the interface of organic chemistry, electrochemistry, and microelectronics technology, with the main objective of developing methodological and technological solutions to longstanding challenges in chemical synthesis.