Zixin Lin, a strong fighter for safeguarding scientific rationality and promoting scientific spirit, died on December 26, 2021, in Beijing at the age of ninety-three. Mr. Lin was a colleague to the Center for Inquiry (CFI), a fellow of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry, and an honorary chairman of Center for Inquiry China (CFIC).
Born in April 1929 in Fujian province, China, Mr. Lin graduated from the Department of Mathematics of Tsinghua University in 1952. In 1972, he was transferred to the State Scientific and Technological Commission (SSTC) and successively served as deputy director of the Policy Research Office of SSTC, director of the Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China, and secretary general of SSTC. In September 1985, he became president and founding editor-in-chief of Science and Technology Daily, a newspaper of science published each day in Beijing. He had been the honorary chairman of CFIC since 2006.
Mr. Lin was known for his devotion to scientific research and communication in China, with admirable respect for rational inquiry. He was a brave fighter against pseudoscience and supernatural theories. A tenet of his planetary ethics was the belief that scientific and technological progress leads to human well-being. He was one of the early activists in global ecology and environmental protection. Having organized the translation of several leading theoretical works in global ecology, he called for China’s public attention to climate change and a green, carbon-friendly lifestyle movement.
In April 1987, Mr. Lin led China’s science and technology delegation to visit the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (CSICOP) headquarters in Buffalo, New York, and meet with then-chairman Paul Kurtz for deepened communication and dialogues. This trip initiated China’s cooperation and partnership with CSICOP. In 1988, Mr. Lin invited Kurtz and an American delegation consisting of six colleagues to visit China, where they conducted academic activities and visits and carried out investigations in Beijing, Xi’an, and Shanghai. The report of those CSICOP investigations during that trip became the cover article for the Summer 1988 Skeptical Inquirer.
Mr. Lin’s undeniable efforts in joining Chinese scientists and CSICOP to fight against pseudoscience contributed to science education in China, where conspiracies about superpowers and supernatural phenomena were once prevalent. In October 2007, Mr. Lin cochaired with Kurtz the International Conference on Scientific Inquiry and Human Well-Being in Beijing, cosponsored by CFI and the China Research Institute for Science Popularization (CRISP). It brought the Sino-U.S. cooperation on scientific education to its next phase. (Two reports on that conference became the cover articles for the March/April 2008 SI.)
CFI scholars deeply respect and sentimentally recall Mr. Lin’s dedication to knowledge, scientific vision, and sincerity in establishing long-lasting cooperation with international colleagues.
Notably, in 1996, Mr. Lin’s presence at the first World Sceptics Conference (WSC) encouraged an increasing number of young Chinese scholars to join the ensuing conferences. Their research reports presented at the WSC, such as Work of Chinese Sceptics and Anti-Pseudoscience Strategies in China, Studies of Supernational Phenomena in China, and A Brief History of Parapsychology in China, allowed international colleagues to learn about skeptical and anti-pseudoscience research in China. Mr. Lin’s academic contributions to scientific philosophy, science education and public communication, secular humanism, and scientific ethics will be remembered. We deeply mourn his death with immense gratitude for his unparalleled efforts in pushing China’s scientific advancement and international cooperation on the societal level.
We offer our deepest condolences for this science fighter. May he rest in peace.