chemistry

Song Lin (chemist)

Song Lin (chemist) is a chemistry topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Song Lin (chemist) rather than just read about it. In short: Song Lin is a Chinese-American organic electrochemist who is a Tisch University Professor at Cornell University. His research involves the development of new synthetic organic methodologies that utilize electrochemistry to forge new chemical bonds.

Key takeaways

Song Lin (chemist) belongs to chemistry; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Song Lin (chemist) to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Song Lin (chemist) from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Song Lin is a Chinese-American organic electrochemist who is a Tisch University Professor at Cornell University. His research involves the development of new synthetic organic methodologies that utilize electrochemistry to forge new chemical bonds. He is an Associate Editor of the journal Organic Letters, and serves on the Early Career Advisory Board of Chemistry - A European Journal. He was named by Chemical & Engineering News as one of their Trailblazers of 2022, a feature highlighting LGBTQ+ chemists in academia.

Early life and education Lin was born in Tianjin. He became interested in science as a child, doing simple household experiments, and was supported by his high school chemistry teacher to pursue a career in research. He completed his bachelor's degree in chemistry (2008) at Peking University where he worked under the supervision of Zhangjie Shi. Lin moved to the United States for graduate studies and joined the organic chemistry department at Harvard University for doctoral research, where he researched small molecule asymmetric catalysis with Eric Jacobsen and was awarded a PhD in 2013.

Research and career Lin moved to the University of California, Berkeley for his postdoctoral research, where he worked in the lab of Christopher Chang. While studying electrocatalysis in Chang's lab, he became aware of the use of porous materials like covalent organic frameworks (COFs) to absorb carbon dioxide. In collaboration with the Yaghi group, Lin showed that porphyrin-containing COFs could catalyze the electrocatalytic reduction of CO2 to CO under applied current and in an aqueous environment. Lin began his independent career at Cornell University where his group's research has focused on the identification of novel synthetic pathways for medicinally relevant compounds. He focuses on the use of electrochemistry to drive chemical reactions. Electrochemistry can make organic synthesis cheaper and more environmentally friendly. For example, Lin demonstrated an electrochemical approach to synthesize 1,2-diamines from alkenes, which are useful precursors to bioactive natural products, therapeutic agents, and molecular catalysts. More recently, Lin's group has developed a method to directly couple alkyl halides using electrochemistry, providing a promising approach towards this difficult chemical transformation.

Awards and honors 2017 Thieme Chemistry Journal Award 2018 National Science Foundation CAREER Award 2019 MIT Technology Review Innovators Under 35 2019 Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Fellowship 2019 Office of Naval Research Young Investigator 2020 Princeton University Bristol-Myers Squibb Lectureship 2020 Research Corporation Cottrell Scholar Award 2021 American Chemical Society National Fresenius Award 2021 Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award 2021 FMC New Investigator Award 2026 Thieme-IUPAC prize

Selected publications Song Lin; Christian S Diercks; Yue-Biao Zhang; et al. (20 August 2015). "Covalent organic frameworks comprising cobalt porphyrins for catalytic CO₂ reduction in water". Science. 349 (6253): 1208–1213. doi:10.1126/science.aac8343. ISSN 0036-8075. PMID 26292706. Wikidata Q40622899. Niankai Fu; Gregory S Sauer; Ambarneil Saha; Aaron Loo; Song Lin (1 August 2017). "Metal-catalyzed electrochemical diazidation of alkenes". Science. 357 (6351): 575–579. doi:10.1126/science.aan6206. ISSN 0036-8075. PMID 28798126. Wikidata Q47326916. Christian S Diercks; Song Lin; Nikolay Kornienko; et al. (29 December 2017). "Reticular Electronic Tuning of Porphyrin Active Sites in Covalent Organic Frameworks for Electrocatalytic Carbon Dioxide Reduction". Journal of the American Chemical Society. 140 (3): 1116–1122. doi:10.1021/jacs.7b11940. ISSN 0002-7863. PMID 29284263. Wikidata Q48335731.

References

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Song Lin (chemist)

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Song Lin (chemist) claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In chemistry, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Song Lin (chemist) before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Song Lin (chemist) ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Song Lin (chemist)

In research: Song Lin (chemist) appears in chemistry research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Song Lin (chemist) in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Song Lin (chemist) is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 21st-century American chemists, American academics of Chinese descent, Chinese emigrants to the United States, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Song Lin (chemist) outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Song Lin (chemist) in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Song Lin (chemist) means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Song Lin (chemist) out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Song Lin (chemist) in simple terms?

Why does Song Lin (chemist) matter?

Because it connects several chemistry ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Song Lin (chemist)?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Song Lin (chemist).