Shiu-Ying Hu

Shiu-Ying Hu, BBS (; 22 February 1910 – 22 May 2012), or Hu Xiuying, was a Chinese botanist. She was an expert in the plant genera of Ilex (Aquifoliaceae), Hemerocallis (Amaryllidaceae), and Panax (Araliaceae). She studied the families Orchidaceae, Compositae, and Malvaceae, and Chinese medicinal herbs and food plants. She was given the nickname "Holly Hu" by her colleagues for her extensive work with holly plants.

Life Hu was born in 1910 to a farm family in a Chinese village near the city of Xuzhou in Jiangsu province. She received her B.Sc. in biology from Ginling College (now part of Nanjing Normal University) and M.Sc. in biology from Lingnan University (now part of Sun Yat-sen University). In 1946 Hu traveled to the United States to pursue a Ph.D. in botany at Radcliffe College. Her supervisor was Elmer Drew Merrill. In 1949 she became the second Chinese woman to receive a doctoral degree in botany from Harvard University,

After earning her Ph.D., Hu worked as a research botanist at the Arnold Arboretum. In 1968 she took the post of Senior Lecturer in the Department of Biology at CUHK, which Hu held until her retirement in 1975. She continued to carry out research during her retirement both at the CUHK Herbarium and the Harvard University Herbaria. Over the course of her career she produced over 160 academic treatises, collected over 30,000 specimens, and published the 800-page encyclopedia Food Plants of China.

Death On 22 May 2012, Hu died at the age of 102 from kidney failure caused by pneumonia at the Prince of Wales Hospital in Sha Tin, Hong Kong.

Awards and recognition 1962, botanist Paclt named in her honour, Shiuyinghua, which is a genus of flowering plants from Hubei belonging to the family Paulowniaceae. 1992: Shiu-Ying Hu Award 2001: Bronze Bauhinia Star 2002: Chinese University of Hong Kong Honorary Fellowship 2003: "Outstanding Chinese" in Success Stories produced by RTHK 2010: Named one of the top ten Loving Hearts of Hong Kong by ATV Home