The California Space Grant Consortium sadly announces the passing of world-renowned experimental space physicist and Professor of Physics Robert (Bob) Lin on Saturday, November 17, 2012. Bob was Director of the Space Sciences Laboratory at UC Berkeley and Campus Director for the California Space Grant Consortium until 2008. During this time he and his Space Science Lab colleagues mentored dozens of Space Grant students in several space-related projects. His research interests were broad, ranging from solar and heliospheric physics to lunar and planetary science. Bob’s primary interest was in how particles are accelerated to high energies in nature. According to a colleague, his greatest professional achievement was the RHESSI (Reuven Ramaty High Energy Solar Spectroscopic Imager) satellite, which was launched in 2002. More recently Bob had been working with graduate and undergraduate students on CubeSats and balloon tests of a solar imager. We last saw Bob in 2010 when he gave the Jim Arnold Lecture at UC San Diego on “Magnetic Planets and How Mars Lost Its Atmosphere“. Bob is survived by his wife, Lily Lin, and stepson, Linus Sun.

Please click here for the UC Berkeley News Center obituary.