Shu-Kun Lin was born on 24 March 1957 in Hanchuan, Hubei Province, China. Graduated with BSc from Wuhan University in January 1982, majoring inorganic chemistry, he studied physical chemistry in the Lanzhou Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences (1982-1986, MSc in 1985) and in the USA (UofL, Jan. 1987 to July 1989). Doctorate (organic chemistry) at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH-Zürich) in 1992 following studies over three years in the group of Prof. Dr. Bernhard Jaun, Laboratory of Organic Chemistry. He then worked at Ciba-Geigy Ltd. for three years, first as a postdoctoral research associate in organic synthesis and drug discovery, then at the Dyestuffs Division of Ciba-Geigy Ltd. which involved dyestuff R&D and production. He also stayed for 6 months in 1996 in Prof. Dr. B. Giese's group, Organic Chemistry Institute, University of Basel, Switzerland, as a postdoctoral research associate. In 1996, he initiated the samples collection and exchange project and founded the international organization, Molecular Diversity Preservation International (MDPI) in Switzerland to implement this. In 2001 he became a professor at the Ocean University of China (OUC). In 1996 he launched the first journal Molecules that encourages authors to deposit research samples of compounds from their work. He is the founder or co-founder of several other open-access journals: Entropy (1999), International Journal of Molecular Sciences (2000), Sensors (2001), Marine Drugs (2003) and International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (2004). Became the Editor-in-Chief of Molecular Diversity in 2002 and held this position until the resignation in June 2007. Principal author of over 40 publications. Shu-Kun Lin has two children: a daughter Qian-Qian (Tina), born 26 July 1986, and a son, Di-Fan (Stefan), born 1 June 1996.