Celebrating Our Honorees | Montgomery College, Maryland

Honorary Degree Recipients 1996–2019

2015 Honorary Degree Recipients

Dr. Michael C. Lin
Biomedical Scientist National Institutes of Health

Dr. Michael C. Lin

Dr. Michael C. Lin enjoyed a 35-year career as a biomedical scientist at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). His research was cited in his mentors’ Nobel Prize lectures. As a program director at NIH, he was responsible for nurturing cutting-edge research in the cardiovascular field. He retired in 2006.

In addition to his biomedical career, Dr. Lin has served in leadership positions for several nonprofit organizations. Most recently, he chaired the 1882 Project, successfully securing the passage of Congressional Resolutions which expressed regret for the injustice of the Chinese Exclusion Laws and reaffirmed Congress’ commitment to protect the civil rights of all persons.

For more than two decades, Dr. Lin has assumed various leadership roles at the Organization of Chinese Americans (OCA), including serving as the national executive director, as the chair of the building campaign, and as the national president. For his leadership in OCA, he earned recognition as a member of the Committee of 100.

Locally, Dr. Lin and a group of Asian American leaders founded the Asian American Political Alliance to encourage participation and to raise the visibility of the community in every aspect of civic activities. He also served as the chair of the Governor’s Commission on Asian Pacific American Affairs in Maryland. For 12 years, Dr. Lin served as a member of the Montgomery College Board of Trustees, including as board chair.

Currently, he is on the Leadership Council of the Center for History of New America at University of Maryland, the Montgomery College Life Sciences Park Foundation Board, and the KID Museum Board of Directors.

Dr. Lin’s honors include the OCA Lifetime Achievement Award and the Roscoe Nix Distinguished Community Leadership Award.

He received a PhD from the Medical College of Georgia and did post-doctoral training at Rockefeller University in New York. He was a managing partner in a hotel in Bethesda where his wife, Ellen, retired after working as the general manager for more than 20 years. Their son, Christopher, an aerospace engineer for Boeing, lives in Seattle with their two grandsons. Their daughter, Jennifer, is a research and practicing physician in Portland, Oregon.