Lin was recruited by Du Pont de Nemours and Company in Wilmington, Delaware to explore the role of rheology in polymer coatings.

Working at both Marshall Laboratory in Philadelphia and the Experimental Station in Wilmington, he focused on developing polymer coating systems in compliance with air pollution control regulations gradually being introduced in the United States.

Later in 1987, when he attended the Advanced Management Program (AMP, Class 101) at the Harvard University Graduate School of Business,[1] he expounded the value of multi-disciplinary collaboration in problem-solving even for companies of competing interests.

In 1979, Lin went to Taiwan on a sabbatical leave and was appointed professor and dean of the school of engineering at National Tsing Hua University in Hsinchu.

Concurrently, he was charged with managing the Tsing-Hua development of experimental electric vehicles, a pioneering R&D program aimed at lifting Taiwan's fuel efficiency and environmental protection in its petroleum-driven economy.

Embarking on EV development in the early 1980s reflected the vision of the leadership of Chiang Ching-Kuo and his technocrat teams including Yuen-Hsuan Sun, Shien-Shiu Shu, and Kuo-Ting Li.

But an illness kept him from coming on board until 1983, when he resigned from Du Pont and moved his family (wife Ada and 2 school-age children, Ann and Gene, and later Dean) to Hsin-Chu.

In the succeeding years, MRL was to become the birthplace of carbon fiber bicycles, high-strength specialty steels, flexible printed circuits, laser diodes, electronic ceramics and played a key role in nuclear power plant safety and maintenance.

Lin considered the following as headquarters' responsibility: defining visions, setting objectives and strategy, strengthening infrastructure, providing resources and support, outlining performance standards and cultivating an institutional culture.

It has established alliances or collaborations with the Fraunhofer Gesselschaft (Germany), TNO (the Netherlands), SISIR (Singapore), CSIRO (Australia), AT&T Bell Labs (U.S.), and others.

[11] He spearheaded the development of the Nansha IT Park, a partnership of HKUST, the Fok Ying-Tung Foundation, and Guangzhou city government, at a site near Humen where the historical Opium War was fought, with the hope to transform it to a center of innovation and entrepreneurship for the future Greater Hong Kong-Guangdong Bay Area.

An oral history conducted in 2007-2009 by the Bancroft Library, University of California-Berkeley, under a grant from the Kauffman Foundation, has documented Lin's work on promoting innovation and entrepreneurship, and his efforts on education.

From 2009 to 2020, Lin helped connect the HKPolyU-developed fiber optics sensing system technology to the development of the Beijing-Shanghai high-speed rail line, to improve the health monitoring and safety management of major industrial infrastructures.

In the spring of 2021, he was invited to join Hong Kong Baptist University as senior advisor to the president and vice-chancellor, and honorary professor of business.