G. D. Hsiung

Gueh-Djen (Edith) Hsiung was a virologist and professor emeritus of laboratory medicine. She was one of the first women to achieve the rank of professor at the Yale School of Medicine.

Life Hsiung was born on September 16, 1918, in Hubei, China. She graduated with a degree in biology from Ginling College in Chengdu, where she majored in pre-medical studies and biology from 1938 to 1942. She planned to go to medical school, but her opportunity was lost when Peking Union Medical College closed during World War II.

Select publications Hsiung wrote the textbook Diagnostic Virology (1964) that became a standard in the field. She also published a scientific autobiography, Mysteries and Miracles, in 1995. During her career, Hsiung also published more than 240 papers on diagnostic virology.

Among her publications are:

Hsiung, G. D., & Fong, C. K. Y. (1982). Diagnostic virology: Illustrated by light and electron microscopy. New Haven: Yale University Press. Hsiung, G. D., Fong, C. K. Y., & Landry, M. L. (1994). Hsiung's diagnostic virology: As illustrated by light and electron microscopy. New Haven: Yale University Press. Hsiung, G. D., & Henderson, J. R. (1964). Diagnostic virology: By G.D. Hsiung, in collaboration with J.R. Henderson. New Haven: Yale Univ. Press. Seligson, D., Hsiung, G. D., & Green, R. H. (1978). Virology and rickettsiology. West Palm Beach, Fla: CRC Press.

Awards Hsiung received many awards and honors, including the Becton-Dickinson Award in Clinical Microbiology from the American Society for Microbiology, the Wellcome Diagnostic Award from the Pan American Group for Rapid Viral Diagnosis. In 1989, friends and colleagues established the G.D. Hsiung, Ph.D., Student Research Fellowship Fund. The Pan American Society for Clinical Virology gives an award each year in her honor.

In 1989, she received an Honorary Doctor of Science degree from Michigan State University.

She received her honorary professorship in virology first from Hubei Medical University in 1982 and several others later from Chinese Academy of Medical Science, Tianjin Medical University, etc.

She was a fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology and the Infectious Diseases Society of America, and a member of the American Society for Microbiology, the New York Academy of Sciences, the American Association of Immunologists, the Society for Experimental Biology and Medicine, the Tissue Culture Association, the Pan American Group for Rapid Viral Diagnosis, and is a charter member of the American Society of Virology.