Weather you know the name Maya Lin or not, you have seen or know of her artwork. Lin is a Chinese-American that was born in Athens, Ohio. Her dad was a ceramist and the dean of fine arts and her mom was a professor of literature, both working for Ohio University. Young Lin was always a gifted math student and this greatly contributed to her talent in architecture. She first caught the eye of the world when she submitted the winning for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. At that time she was a twenty-one year old senior at Yale University studying art and architecture. The design consisted of seventy slabs of high polish granite that was engraved with all of the names of the soldiers that died in combat, listed in chronological order. “I also wanted remembering the past relevant to the present. Some people wanted me to put the names in alphabetical order. I wanted them in chronological order so that a veteran could find his time within the panel. It's like a thread of life.” The memorial was erected on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. and was opened to the public on November 11, 1982.

After her work on the Vietnam War Memorial, Lin went on to earn a Master's degree in architecture and later an Honorary Doctorate in fine arts from Yale. Her designs include several sculptures, furniture, parks, monuments, and other architectural projects. Most of her ideal revolve around the idea of the landscape and the use of environmental elements. “The artworks deal much more specifically with my personal love of landscape, the environment, how we see the land through a microscopic view, a satellite view of the Earth. That's my art.” This can also be seen in her Civil Rights Memorial in Montgomery, Alabama. The work was inspired by Martin Luther King's "I have a dream" speech that states, “…we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.” Dr. King’s words are included into the design of the memorial.