Albert Yu-Min Lin is an American engineer, scientist, technologist, explorer and television host. He is a senior lecturer and an associate research scientist of mechanical and aerospace engineering at

University of California, San Diego The University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego in communications material, formerly and colloquially UCSD) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in San Diego, California, United States. Es ...

. Since 2019 he has been the presenter of ''Lost Cities With Albert Lin''.

Early life and education

Lin was born on 22 March 1981, in

Santa Cruz County, California Santa Cruz County (), officially the County of Santa Cruz, is a county on the Pacific coast of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 270,861. The county seat is Santa Cruz. Santa Cruz County comprises the Sa ...

. He completed a bachelor of science (2004), a masters of science (2006) and a PhD (2008) in mechanical and aerospace engineering from the University of California San Diego.

Career

Lin has been an associate research scientist at the

California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

UC San Diego The University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego in communications material, formerly and colloquially UCSD) is a public land-grant research university in San Diego, California, United States. Established in 1960 near the pre-existing Sc ...

since 2008. He is the founding director of UC San Diego's Center for Human Frontiers, which aims to harness technology to augment human potential. He founded the crowd-based analytics company Tomnod, which was acquired in 2011 by commercial satellite imagery provider

DigitalGlobe DigitalGlobe was an American commercial vendor of space imagery and geospatial content, and operator of civilian remote sensing spacecraft. The company went public on the New York Stock Exchange on 14 May 2009, selling 14.7 million shares at U ...

. Lin's work gained attention in 2009 for utilizing a combination of satellites, drones, geophysics, and intensive ground exploration to search for the missing tomb of

Genghis Khan Genghis Khan (born Temüjin; August 1227), also known as Chinggis Khan, was the founder and first khan (title), khan of the Mongol Empire. After spending most of his life uniting the Mongols, Mongol tribes, he launched Mongol invasions and ...

. For his work on the Valley of the Khans project, he was named

National Geographic ''National Geographic'' (formerly ''The National Geographic Magazine'', sometimes branded as ''Nat Geo'') is an American monthly magazine published by National Geographic Partners. The magazine was founded in 1888 as a scholarly journal, nine ...

's Adventurer of the Year for 2009. In addition to his scholarly work, Lin has been a

National Geographic Society The National Geographic Society, headquartered in Washington, D.C., United States, is one of the largest nonprofit scientific and educational organizations in the world. Founded in 1888, its interests include geography, archaeology, natural sc ...

Explorer since 2010. He has hosted a number of

television shows which document his research expeditions, including ''Forbidden Tomb of Genghis Khan'' (2011), ''China's Megatomb Revealed'' (2016), ''Lost Treasures of the Maya'' (2018), and ''Buried Secrets of the Bible'' (2019). Since 2019, he has hosted the National Geographic series ''Lost Cities with Albert Lin''. The show focuses on the use of drones and LIDAR (light detection and ranging) imaging to reveal otherwise hidden archaeological structures within and beneath modern cities and remote landscapes.

Personal life

Lin grew up surfing and is an avid outdoorsman. He is fluent in English and Mandarin. With Kara Lin, Lin has two children, son Charlie and daughter Millie. In April, 2025, Charlie Lin was injured in a skiing accident in Reno, Nevada, and suffered a

traumatic brain injury A traumatic brain injury (TBI), also known as an intracranial injury, is an injury to the brain caused by an external force. TBI can be classified based on severity ranging from mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI/concussion) to severe traumati ...

. Charlie was treated at Renown Hospital Tahoe Tower and has since made "remarkable" steps toward recovery. In 2016, part of Lin's right leg was amputated after being severely damaged during a crash in a four-wheel-drive open-top vehicle. Everything from the knee down was removed in an attempt to alleviate pain, but Lin was in turn plagued by phantom limb pain. He credits a heavy dose of

psilocybin Psilocybin, also known as 4-phosphoryloxy-''N'',''N''-dimethyltryptamine (4-PO-DMT), is a natural product, naturally occurring tryptamine alkaloid and Investigational New Drug, investigational drug found in more than List of psilocybin mushroom ...

with improving the symptoms. Since then, he has worn a high-tech prosthetic leg which has allowed him to continue to lead and participate in extremely physically demanding expeditions. Lin, primarily through his Center for Human Frontiers, has become a vocal advocate for improving access to prosthetics using technology including 3D printing.

Recognition

Lin is a recipient of both the

Desert Research Institute Desert Research Institute (DRI) is a nonprofit research campus of the Nevada System of Higher Education (NSHE) and a sister property of the University of Nevada, Reno (UNR), the organization that oversees all publicly supported higher educatio ...

Nevada Medal and the Lowell Thomas Medal from

The Explorers Club The Explorers Club is an American-based international multidisciplinary professional society with the goal of promoting scientific exploration and field study. The club was founded in New York City in 1904 and has served as a meeting point for ex ...

Select works

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References

External links

* * American scientists with disabilities American scientists of Asian descent {{DEFAULTSORT:Lin, Albert 1981 births Living people University of California, San Diego alumni American amputees People from Santa Cruz County, California Engineers from California American aerospace engineers American television hosts 21st-century American engineers Television personalities from California