Henry Lin (astronomer)

{{short description|American astrophysicist}}

{{Infobox scientist

| name = Henry Lin

| image =

| image_size =

| birth_date = {{birth year and age|1995}}

| birth_place = Shreveport, Louisiana, U.S.

| Religion =

| alma_mater = Harvard University, Princeton University

| thesis_title = Towards the Black Hole Interior

| thesis_url = http://arks.princeton.edu/ark:/88435/dsp012801pk55n

| thesis_year = 2022

| doctoral_advisor = Juan Maldacena

| ethnicity =

}}

Henry Wanjune Lin (born 1995) is an American astrophysicist and incoming assistant professor of physics at Princeton University.https://phy.princeton.edu/people/henry-w-lin As a senior in high school, Lin won the Intel Young Scientist award, the second-highest award at the 2013 Intel Science and Engineering Fair, for his work with MIT professor Michael McDonald on simulations of galaxy clusters.{{cite web |title=Henry Lin |url=http://www.ted.com/speakers/henry_lin |website=ted.com |accessdate=24 July 2014}} In 2015, he was named one of Forbes' 30 under 30 scientists.{{cite web |url=https://www.forbes.com/30under30/#/science |title=30 Under 30 – Forbes |work=forbes.com}}

Lin is a 2012 alumnus of the Research Science Institute and a 2013 alumnus of the International Summer School for Young Physicists (ISSYP) at Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics. In November 2013, he gave a TED talk on clusters of galaxies in New Orleans, LA.{{cite web |url=http://www.ted.com/talks/henry_lin_what_we_can_learn_from_galaxies_far_far_away |title=Henry Lin: What we can learn from galaxies far, far away – Talk Video – TED.com |author=Henry Lin |work=ted.com|date=27 February 2014 }}

Together with Harvard astronomy chair Abraham Loeb and atmospheric scientist Gonzalo Gonzalez Abad, Lin proposed a novel way to search for extraterrestrial intelligence by targeting exoplanets with industrial pollution.{{cite news |last1=Johnson |first1=Carolyn |title=Scientists can detect pollution in search for 'intelligent' life |url=https://www.bostonglobe.com/news/science/2014/07/24/another-way-look-for-intelligent-life-detect-pollution/wsSIAioXuY8lx3HMvVTIYL/story.html |accessdate=24 July 2014 |publisher=Boston Globe}}{{cite news |last1=Overbye |first1=Dennis |title=More Eyes on the Skies |work=The New York Times |date=21 July 2014 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/22/science/space/more-eyes-on-the-skies.html?_r=0 |accessdate=24 July 2014 }}{{cite news |last1=Lemonick |first1=Michael |title=The Search for Extraterrestrial Air Pollution |url=https://time.com/3030705/the-search-for-extraterrestrial-air-pollution/ |access-date=28 July 2014 |publisher=Time Magazine}} Lin's unconventional work also includes proposing a statistical theory of human population{{cite web|title=Astrophysicists Prove That Cities On Earth Grow in the Same Way As Galaxies in Space|url=http://www.technologyreview.com/view/534251/astrophysicists-prove-that-cities-on-earth-grow-in-the-same-way-as-galaxies-in-space/|publisher=MIT Tech Review}} which explains Zipf's Law and proposing a novel test for panspermia in the galaxy.{{cite web|title=Life May Have Spread Through the Galaxy Like a Plague|url=http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/life-may-have-spread-through-galaxy-plague-180956425/|work=Smithsonian}}

He is currently a postdoctoral scholar at Stanford University{{Cite web|url=https://profiles.stanford.edu/297749|title=Henry Lin | Stanford Profiles}} after receiving his PhD at Princeton University under Juan Maldacena. His dissertation focused on understanding the interior of black holes in quantum gravity.{{Cite web|url=https://dataspace.princeton.edu/handle/88435/dsp012801pk55n|title=Princeton University Doctoral Dissertations, 2011-2023}}