Kenneth Hsu


Kenneth Jinghwa Hsu Ph.D., M.A., born 28 June 1929, is a Chinese scientist, geologist, paleoclimatologist, oceanographer, government advisor, author, inventor and entrepreneur who was born in Nanjing, China.

Biography

Education
Hsu studied at the Chinese National Central University , and came to the United States in 1948 where he studied at Ohio State University, and at University of California, Los Angeles, where he received his Ph.D. in 1953.
Professional life
Hsu initially worked as a petroleum geologist for the Shell Development Corporation, now called Shell Oil Company, in Houston, Texas, US, between 1954 and 1963. He was associate professor at two universities in the USA between 1963 and 1967, before becoming professor of geology at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology between 1967 and 1994, where he promoted experimental geology and built up 5 leading international laboratories in the fields of rock mechanics, mass-spectrometry, Quaternary research, sedimentology and tectonics. It was after his retirement from University teaching that Hsu started to work in environmental engineering.
Professorships & lectureships
While Hsu was professor at the Institute of Geology, ETH Zurich between 1967 and 1994, he was invited as lecturer, guest or honorary professor in geology, climatology or oceanography to numerous renowned universities of the world, including Beijing, California, Cambridge, Columbia, Florence, Harvard, London, Milan, M.I.T., Moscow, Nanjing, Naples, Ohio, Oxford, Paris, Princeton, Taipei, Tokyo, Toronto, Washington, Woods Hole, Yale etc.
After retirement in 1994, he was guest professor at the National Taiwan University, senior fellow at the Berlin Institute of Advanced Studies, Keck Professor at Colorado School of Mines, guest professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, university professor at Nanjing University, and university professor at Beijing University of Geosciences.

Scientific contributions

Academic work
Hsu participated in the Earth Science Revolution of the 1960s, consolidating Plate Tectonics Theory, and has throughout his life been active in so-called 'Process Oriented Geology', which is in conversation with the evolutionary biology of Lynn Margulis, the Gaia hypothesis of James Lovelock, and others. Instead of being preoccupied with rocks and mirrors, Hsu treated geological problems as arising from physical, chemical and biological processes, and hence has been a stout promoter of an educational reform in geology, emphasizing the fundamental principles of earth physics, chemistry and biology.
In geology, his work included sedimentation in isostatically driven tectonic basins, the active margins of continental plates, physical chemistry of evaporite and pelagic diagenesis, documentation of granulite formation, catastrophic consequences of meteorite impacts, extinction of life forms and the limnology of Lake Zurich.
Scientific expeditions and explorations
Hsu participated and led 5 deep-sea drilling cruises to the South Atlantic, Mediterranean, and Black Sea. He also led several international expeditions to Tibet, Xinjiang, Inner Mongolia, South China, California Coast Ranges and the Swiss Alps, travelling to 80 countries for Earth Science.
Awards
For his contributions to geology, Hsu received several medals and awards.
Honorary positions and achievements
Hsu was elected a Member of the U. S. National Academy of Science in 1986, but in given circumstances, became a Foreign Associate. He was also an Associate of the Third-World Academy of Sciences, a Member of Academia Sinica, the Mediterranean Academy of Sciences and several other academies of science. He was a founder of the European Geophysical Society and a founder of the science of paleoceanography. He convened the First International Conference of Paleoceanography and founded the journal Paleoceanography. Hsu also assisted in the founding of the Asian Association of Marine Geology. He also served for 11 years as President of the International Association of Sedimentologists. Hsu was the convener of the Third Workshop on Marine Geology of IUGS; the First Earth Science Colloquium of the European Science Foundation; several Dahlem Conferences of the Dahlem Foundation; and numerous symposia and workshops for IGP, ILP, IGCP, SCOR and JOIDE.
Leadership positions in scientific organizations
Hsu served in numerous scientific organizations:
  • President and Past President of the International Association of Sedimentologists ;
  • General Secretary of the Alpine Mediterranean Working Group of the International Geodynamics Project ;
  • Chairman of the Paleoceaonography Working Group of the International Lithosphere Project ;
  • Leader of several projects of UNESCO's International Geological Correlation Project ;
  • Chairman of the International Commission of Marine Geology ;
  • Chairman of the Committee on Sedimentology of the International Union of Geological Sciences ;
  • ex officio member of the executive committee of the Scientific Commission on Oceanographic Research ;
  • member of the Swiss Commission on UNESCO ;
  • International Union of the Geological Sciences ;
  • Representative of the Geological Sciences at the IGBP/Global Change Program of the International Council of Scientific Unions ;
  • ICSU member of the United Nations Expert Panel on Seabed Disposal of Radioactive Waste ;
  • Chairman of the Mediterranean Panel, South Atlantic Panel and Tectonics Panel of the Joint Oceanographic Institutions Deep Earth Study Program,
  • Member of the Paleoceanography Panel and the JOIDES Planning Committee of the Ocean-Drilling Program.
Editorships
Hsu was Editor and or Associate Editor of numerous journals including:
  • Sedimentology: Journal of the International Association of Sedimentologists. UK: Blackwell Science.
  • Journal of Sedimentary Petrography.
  • Bulletin of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists.
  • Geophysical Research Letters.
  • Bulletin of the Japanese Geological Society.
  • Tethys.
  • Geologie Mediterrane.
Scientific affiliations
  • Advisor, Chinese Natural Science Foundation.
  • Alumni of the Century, Nanjing University.
  • Associate fellow, Third World Academy of Sciences.
  • Chair, International Marine Geology Commission, 1980–89.
  • Chairman, department of earth sciences, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology.
  • Distinguished alumnus, Ohio State University.
  • Emeritus professor, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology.
  • First distinguished alumni lecturer of geology, UCLA.
  • Guest professor, National Taiwan University.
  • Guest professor, Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
  • Honorary professor, University College London, April 2008.
  • International Writer of the Year, International Book Club, 2003.
  • Keck Professor, Colorado School of Mines.
  • Member, National Academy of Sciences, Academy Sinica.
  • Member, Mediterranean Academy of Sciences.
  • Member and foreign associate, U.S. National Academy of Sciences, 1986.
  • President, International Association of Sedimentologists, 1978–82.
  • Senior fellow, Institute of Advanced Studies, Berlin, 1995–96.
  • University professor, Nanjing University.
  • University professor, Beijing University of Geosciences.
Advisory work
Hsu was a convener of numerous scientific conferences, founder of several scientific societies, and advisor to the governments of developing countries:
  • UNDP Advisor to Maltese Government ;
  • UNDP Advisor to Chinese Government ;
  • Advisor to Brazil Government on petroleum geology;
  • Advisor to Argentina and Taiwan governments on lake research and global change;
  • Advisor to the Chinese Ministry of Geology ;
  • Consultant to the Chinese Ministry of Chemical Industry ;
  • Consultant to the Chinese Ministry of Petroleum Geology ;
  • Consultant to the Taiwan Museum of Natural History ;
  • Technical Advisor to the Taiwan National Science Foundation ;
  • External Examiner to the University of Malaysia.
  • Consultant to the Chinese Ministry of Petroleum;
  • Consultant to the Chinese Ministry of Geology and Mining;
  • Consultant to the Chinese Institute of Geotechnical Investigation.
Science politics
His co-organized a consortium of 15 European member states to join the International Ocean Drilling Program.
Contributions to the geology of China
Hsu successfully lobbied for the admission of the Chinese Geological Union to replace the Chinese Geological Society in Taipei as a member of the International Union of Geological Sciences and was a member of the first IUGS delegation to China. He served the Chinese Ministry of Geology and Mining in giving training programs for Sedimentology, Field Geology of Tibet and Plate Tectonics. From 1983 to 1995, he assisted the Institute of Geology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences with the completion of a project on plate tectonics and to publish a new Geological Atlas of China.
Appreciation
Two Festschrift symposia books, Controversies in Geology, and Paradoxes in Geology, were published by Hsu's colleagues on his 60th and 70th birthdays. In September 2009, his contributions to China and to science were acknowledged at a conference in Beijing, attended by dignitaries from government, industry and academia.

Entrepreneurial activities

Enterprise
After his retirement, Hsu made several inventions in mining, oil, water and energy technology, and founded various companies including Tarim Resource Recycling Limited ; Kenneth Hsu IHC Technology & Development Limited and Lazarus Energy International Limited.
Inventions
Hsu was awarded 16 patents in mining, petroleum, water, carbon, energy and environment management, including the Hydro-Transistor and Integrated Hydrologic Circuit.
Hsu's technologies applied in China included:
  • 3-D Enhanced Oil Recovery of the world's residual oil reserves;
  • Lithium Production from brine lakes and sea water to empower hybrid vehicles;
  • Water Availability by waste water recycling and rainwater harvesting to eliminate shortages;
  • Nitrite-Free Drinking Water scientifically demonstrated to reduce the cancer mortality rate by half;
  • Nitrite-Free Sewage-Treatment Works to denitritize the drinking water supply;
  • Lake Rehabilitation by eliminating algal pollution through sequestering of carbon dioxide;
  • Biofuel Generation by utilizing carbon dioxide emissions to mitigate the burning of fossil fuels;
  • Capillary Irrigation to conserve water whilst reclaiming land without utilizing surface irrigation;
  • Land Reclamation and Desert Greening by sequestering atmospheric carbon dioxide;
  • Hydro-Electricity without building hydro-electric dams.
Endorsements
After extensive research and development, Hsu's water technologies were unanamiously endorsed by an expert panel called by the Chinese State Counsellors' Office of the Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao; and by Nobel Laureate Samuel Ting, and University of California Chancellor, Henry Yang, who both served on the Chinese Premiere's KHC Advisory Board.
In 2000, Hsu combined the newly developed enhanced oil recovery techniques of hydro-fracturing and horizontal drilling, with water flooding, to invent a totally new process of residual oil recovery, called 3-dimensional fluid injection, to exploit residual oil. The method utilized water rather than carbon dioxide, although carbon dioxide can also be used in the process. Hsu suggested the technique could increase the recoverable petroleum reserve of the world by a factor of 50% or more.
With the full support of the Chinese Prime Minister, Wen Jiabao, in February 2006, an Expert Panel called by former Petroleum Minister Dr Wang Tao, unanimously agreed Hsu's ROR invention was innovative, and should be tested and applied in China. In April 2006, PetroChina reported a successful test at the Changqing Oil Field, first discovered in 1907. Prior to the test, its annual production was about 10,000 tons. In 2006, this rose to 10 million tons, and in 2007, to 20 million tons.
Ventures
Hsu is active with institutions, organizations and corporations to apply the new technologies in China and internationally.
Consultancy
Hsu is president of the IHC Technology & Development Corporation, senior advisor and chief engineer to the Kenneth Hsu Institute for IHC Development and director of the Center for Environmental & Health Engineering. His work on the link between nitrite in drinking water and cancer was documented in The Ecologist journal.