Chang-Lin Tien GBM (Chinese: 田長霖; pinyin: Tián Chánglín; July 24, 1935 – October 29, 2002) was a Taiwanese engineering professor who was the chancellor of the University of California, Berkeley, from 1990 to 1997. He was the first person of Asian descent to head a major research university in the United States.

Chang-Lin Tien was born in Huangpi, Hubei, China, on July 24, 1935. His father, Tian Yong-chien, was a wealthy banker who graduated from Peking University with a degree in physics and became a financial commissioner in the Kuomintang government. His mother, Lee Yun-Di, was a member of a family of intellectuals. During the Second Sino-Japanese War, the family lost their possessions and fled to the Shanghai French Concession, where Yong-chien became the head of a major bank and Shanghai's commissioner of commerce.

Due to the Chinese Civil War, the family became impoverished again. When Tien was fourteen years old, they fled Shanghai for Taiwan in 1949 during the Great Retreat; his father died of depression and a heart attack at age 54. In high school, he worked odd jobs to support the family. After graduating from Taipei Municipal Chien Kuo High School, Tien studied mechanical engineering at National Taiwan University and received a Bachelor of Science (B.S.) in 1955 at age 19.

Upon completing his undergraduate degree, Tien served one year in the Republic of China Armed Forces and won a full scholarship to attend the University of Louisville for graduate studies in the United States. After obtaining a Master of Science (M.S.) in thermodynamics from Louisville in 1956, he completed doctoral studies at Princeton University, where he earned a Master of Arts (M.A.) and his Ph.D. in mechanical engineering in 1959 after only two years of study. His doctoral dissertation was titled, "Transport processes in two-phase turbulent flow".

Tien joined UC Berkeley faculty as an assistant professor of mechanical engineering in 1959, and three years later, at the age of 26, became the youngest professor ever to be honored with UC Berkeley's Distinguished Teaching Award. He was promoted to full professor in 1968 and served as the chair of the Department of Mechanical Engineering from 1974 to 1981. From 1983 to 1985, he served as vice chancellor of research. Tien spent his entire career at Berkeley, except for 1988–90 when he was executive vice-chancellor of UC Irvine. In 1999, Tien received the prestigious title of "University Professor".

Tien was an expert in thermal science and researched on thermal radiation, thermal insulation, microscale thermal phenomena, fluid flow, phase-change energy transfer, heat pipes, reactor safety, cryogenics, and fire phenomena, authoring more than 300 research journal and monograph articles, 16 edited volumes, and one book. Up until 2005, his work was posthumously published in the Annual Review of Heat Transfer.

As chancellor, Tien was a leading supporter of affirmative action. After the Regents banned the use of racial preferences in 1995 for university admissions, Tien launched the "Berkeley Pledge," an outreach program designed to recruit disadvantaged students from the state's public schools. Amid an 18% budget cut, Tien launched "The Promise of Berkeley – Campaign for the New Century", a fundraising drive that raised $1.44 billion. In December 1996, President Bill Clinton put him on the shortlist of candidates for United States Secretary of Energy, but Tien was removed after the Chinese campaign finance scandal made headlines; the unsealed Federal Bureau of Investigation file for Tien showed he had been investigated as a potential foreign agent as early as 1973, but no evidence ever was found to support this assumption.

Known for his "Go Bears!" spirit, Tien was very popular with students, often showing up at student rallies and sporting events wearing his "Cal" baseball cap. He was commonly seen picking up trash in Sproul Plaza, appearing in the library in the middle of the night during finals week, or checking up on students in the residence halls and classrooms.