Achievement Award

Dr. Yih-yun Hsu is a Professor Emeritus with University of Maryland. Dr. Hsu was born in Jiangsu, China in 1930. He received his BS in Chemical Engineering from Taiwan University in 1952, and his MS and PhD degrees in Chemical Engineering from the University of Illinois in 1957 and 1958, respectively. After one year post doctoral study at Northwestern University, he joined NASA Lewis Research Center as an aerospace research engineer. At NASA, his major research areas involved studies of boiling and two-phase flow in rocket and reactor cooling systems. Dr. Hsu received a certificate in recognition of his invention of a two-phase flow MHD generator from NASA. From 1974 to 1981, he was a senior reactor engineer at US NRC where he made outstanding contributions to a variety of reactor safety research projects. For his contributions, he received twice the NRC High Quality Performance Award.

In 1989, Dr. Hsu accepted a professorship from the Department of Chemical and Nuclear Engineering of the University of Maryland. His teaching and research interests included heat transfer and reactor design. He was an excellent teacher and motivator. He received a Teaching Excellence Award in 1990. Between 1990 to 1996, he served as the Chairman of the Atomic Energy Council of the Republic of China, a cabinet-level Presidential appointee. During his tenure, he brought to the Agency many fresh ideas and inspirations as well as much needed professional leadership.

Dr. Hsu has been a devoted researcher, educator and administrator. He has dedicated his energy to the advancement of the thermal-hydraulic engineering and the peaceful applications of nuclear energy. His accomplishments are manifested in his publications, and in the honors and awards received. He has more than a hundred publications including a book, handbook chapters and monographs in heat transfer, two-phase flow and related fields. His Awards and honors include ASME Heat Transfer Division Memorial Award (1979), the ANS Thermal Hydraulic Division Technical Achievement Award (1992), the D. Q. Kern Award of AIChE (1993), the Chu Bao-Hsi Award of Chinese Nuclear Society (1996), Fellow of International Nuclear Energy Academy, Fellow of American Institute of Chemical Engineers, and Follow of American Nuclear Society.

In his retirement, Dr. Hsu is directing his research interest on the application of system dynamic and interaction concept to physical, social, and biological fields. He is now taking Chinese poetry, history and traveling as his hobby.