Shiu-Ying Hu, senior research fellow emerita at the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University and honorary professor of Chinese medicine at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, died late last month in Hong Kong from complications of pneumonia. She was 102 years old.
Professor Hu was a plant taxonomist who specialized in orchids, daisies, daylilies, and hollies. Over her long career she collected and identified more than 185,000 plant specimens and published more than 160 scholarly articles.
Professor Hu graduated from Ginling College in Nanking in 1933. She received a master’s degree from Lingnan University in 1937. In 1949, she was the first Chinese woman to earn a Ph.D. in botany at Harvard University. In 1953, she was named a research assistant at the Arnold Arboretum and held a position there until 1976. From 1968 to 1975 she was a senior lecturer in biology at Chung Chi College of the Chinese University of Hong Kong.