Tungyen Lin (November 14, 1912 – November 15, 2003), formerly known as Tong Yin, was a native of Donghan Village, Fuqing, Fujian Province. He was a Chinese-American structural engineer.
Tungyen Lin’s memorial statue, located in the Xipu campus of Southwest Jiaotong University
Born: November 14, 1912, Fuzhou
Died: November 15, 2003 (91 years old) El Cerrito
Alma Mater :
Southwest Jiaotong University
University of California, Berkeley
Beijing Huiwen Middle School
Profession :
Civil engineer, engineer, university teacher, structural engineer
Awards:
U.S. National Medal of Science, Honorary Doctorate of Tongji University
Biography
The second son of Lin Sibi, a judge of the Supreme Court of the Republic of China. He started receiving formal school education at the age of 11. At the age of 14, he was admitted to Tangshan Institute of Technology of National Chiao Tung University (now Southwest Jiaotong University) with the first place in mathematics and the second place in other subjects. In 1931, he obtained a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering and then went to the University of California, Berkeley, to pursue a master’s degree in civil engineering. In 1933, he obtained a master’s degree and returned to China to work in the Ministry of Railways. He served as the chief bridge engineer of the Chengdu-Chongqing Railway and supervised the construction of more than one thousand bridges along the railway. He also served as chief engineer of the Industry and Information Technology Corporation and director of the Taiwan Sugar Railway Department.
In 1946, he was invited by the University of California, Berkeley to serve as a professor. In 1976, he retired to focus on the civil engineering firm he founded, T. Y. Lin International. In 1972, he was elected as an academician of the Academia Sinica. In 1992, T.Y.Lin International Engineering Consulting (China) Co., Ltd. (T. Y. Lin China) was established to focus on civil engineering in mainland China. In 1996, he was elected as a foreign academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
On November 15, 2003, Tungyen Lin died of a heart attack at his home in El Cerrito, California, USA at the age of 91.
Achievement
Tungyen Lin specializes in bridge engineering, and his master’s thesis was the first student paper published in the journal of the American Society of Civil Engineers. It was also a pioneer in the standardization of prestressed concrete engineering. His house in El Cerrito, California was the first residential structure in the world to use prestressed concrete, so he was known as the “Father of Prestressed Concrete.”
In 1969, the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) renamed its “Prestressed Concrete Award” to the “T.Y.Lin Prize.” This was the first scientific award in American scientific history to be named after a Chinese person. In 1974, he won the “Fressine Award” of the International Institute of Prestressing (FIP), which is awarded every four years, becoming the first American and Asian engineer to receive this award.
In 1977, Tungyen Lin and David Allen Filmacher jointly designed the Rukchukki Suspension Bridge across the Auburn Dam reservoir on the American River. The 1,300-foot-long bridge is composed of three-dimensional geometric configurations. The steel cables are anchored obliquely from both sides of the valley to form a unique shape that blends with nature and is ever-changing. The bridge won the first prize in the American Progressive Architecture Award in 1979. Although it was never built, the bridge has always been recognized as a model of the combination of mechanics and aesthetics and is known as “the most famous unbuilt bridge.”
In 1986, he was awarded the National Medal of Science by President Ronald Reagan in the White House and presented a 16-page proposal for the Intercontinental Peace Bridge, which would span the Bering Strait and connect Alaska to the United States. oblast and Siberia in the Russian Far East. There is also a push to build a 16,000-foot-long bridge across the Strait of Gibraltar to connect Europe and Africa. He said: “This bridge will tell the people of the world that human ability and technology can be better invested in building rather than destroying our homes and wealth.” Reagan praised Tungyen Lin for this and said: “He is an engineer. , teacher and writer. His scientific analysis, technological innovation and imaginative design not only crossed the chasm between science and art, but also broke the barrier between technology and society. The following year, the American Association of Consulting Engineers (ACEC) awarded him the He was awarded the “Outstanding Achievement Award” and was given the highest praise: “Tungyen Lin is a pioneer in the engineering field. He has a far-sighted vision, and the engineering he designed is creative and beautiful. It is an international achievement that can benefit all mankind. The award has been given to only one person each year since 1952, and the winners include two former US presidents, Herbert Hoover and Democrat Johnson. Whitey Eisenhower.
In 1995, he was awarded the “Albert Caquet Award” by the French Construction Association (AFGC), becoming the first engineer outside Europe to receive this award. In 1999, he was selected as one of the “125 Most Outstanding Engineers in the Past 125 Years” by the world’s leading magazine Engineering News-Record. In 2000, he was the first winner of the “Design Category” award among the four outstanding awards of the “Outstanding Engineering and Leadership (OPAL) Award” established by the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE). The famous projects he led include the Mosconi Center in San Francisco, California, the Bank of America Tower in Nicaragua, the single-column cable-stayed bridge outside Singapore, the hyperbolic paraboloid shell-roofed stadium in Puerto Rico with only four columns supporting the huge roof, and the The roof of the National Racecourse in Caracas, the Guandu Bridge, Zhongxiao Bridge, Gaoping Bridge in Taiwan, the Bitan Bridge on National Highway 3, and the Nanpu Bridge in Shanghai, China, etc.