Haifan Lin


Haifan Lin is a Chinese-born American stem cell biologist. He is the Eugene Higgins Chair Professor of Cell Biology at Yale University and the founding Director of the Yale Stem Cell Center. He also serves concurrently as the Founding Dean of the School of Life Science and Technology at ShanghaiTech University. He previously founded and directed the Stem Cell Research Program at Duke University. Recognized for his significant contributions to stem cell research, he was elected to the US National Academy of Sciences in 2018.

Biography

Lin was born in Dongtou, Wenzhou, Zhejiang, China. In 1982, he graduated from Fudan University in Shanghai with a bachelor's degree. He moved to the United States to pursue graduate studies at Cornell University and earned his PhD in 1990. He subsequently worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the Carnegie Institution for Science.
In 1994, he became a faculty member of Duke University School of Medicine, and later established the Stem Cell Research Program in 2005. In 2006, Lin moved to Yale University, where he founded the Yale Stem Cell Center and served as its director. He is also the Eugene Higgins Chair Professor of Cell Biology, Professor of Genetics, of Obstetrics, Gynecology, & Reproductive Sciences, and of Dermatology at Yale School of Medicine.
In 2014, Lin became the adjunct founding dean of ShanghaiTech University's School of Life Science and Technology in China, while retaining his positions at Yale.
Lin is recognized for his contributions to stem cell research, especially for his discoveries of the Piwi/Argonaute gene family and the Piwi-interacting RNAs, and for proving the stem cell niche theory. The journal Science named piRNAs as one of the most important breakthroughs in 2006.

Honors

In 2010, Lin was elected an AAAS Fellow and received the National Institutes of Health Director's Pioneer Award. He received the Ray Wu Award in 2013. In 2018, he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the US National Academy of Sciences.