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Herb Lin is Hank J. Holland Fellow in Cyber Policy and Security at the Hoover Institution and Senior Research Scholar for cyber policy and security at the Center for International Security and Cooperation, both at Stanford University. His researchinterests relate broadly to policy-related dimensions of cybersecurity and cyberspace, and he is particularly interested in the use of offensive operations in cyberspace as instruments of national policy and in the security dimensions of information warfare and influence operations on national security.

In addition to his positions at Stanford University, he is Chief Scientist, Emeritus, for the Computer Science and Telecommunications Board, National Research Council (NRC) of the National Academies, where he served from 1990 through 2014 as study director of major projects on public policy and information technology, and Adjunct Senior Research Scholar and Senior Fellow in Cybersecurity (not in residence) at the Saltzman Institute for War and Peace Studies in the School for International and Public Affairs at Columbia University. He is also a member of the Science and Security Board of the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists. In 2016, he served on President Obama’s Commission on Enhancing National Cybersecurity. Prior to his NRC service, he was a professional staff member and staff scientist for the House Armed Services Committee (1986–90), where his portfolio included defense policy and arms control issues.

Apart from his work on cyberspace and cybersecurity, he is published in cognitive science, science education, biophysics, and arms control and defense policy. He also consults on K–12 math and science education. Lin is also a longtime folk and swing dancer and a lousy magician.

Lin received his PhD in physics from MIT.