It is beyond the experience of any one person to completely "grasp" all of
the aspects of Ken's life and work to date, happily for geology still on a
rising trajectory. His extraordinary range of interest and competence may well be
due to a rather unique set of interacting and reinforcing aspects of his
professional evolution and personal history. One of these is, of course, his innate
intense intellectual curiosity of the various sciences that converge in the
field of geology. Another perhaps equally important has been his successive
immersion in three widely disparate cultures: Chinese, American and European- each
with its own philosophical world view, educational system, framework of
personal and professional relationships and hierarchies, all separated by
linguistic gulfs.
- S. Schlanger, An Appreciation of K.J. Hsu on his 60th Birthday, 1989
The exceedingly rare quality of Hsu's autobiography is his courage to speak
plainly. This honesty in facing himself is the source of his strength and the
driving force for his great achievements.
- C.Y. Tang, Chinese translator of Autobiography by K. Hsu, 1996
He is not an ordinary person!
- M.Y. Yang, Seven Taos of Achievement, 1997.
Paradox is a statement contrary to received opinion. Thanks to his
experiences in three different countries, China, US, and Switzerland, he learned that
there are no universally received opinions. The insight gave him opportunity to
make statements contrary to received opinions and to make major contributions
in almost every specialized discipline of geology.
- Sun Shu, Festschrift Symposium Paradoxes in Geology, 1999.
His destiny was to take him away from his fatherland right across the face of
the globe on a path of glory that has led him since to become one of the
greatest masters of our science. His breadth of interest, his depth of commitment
to finding the truth and conveying it to others, the level of the originality
of his methods, observations and inferences, can be compared with only one man
in the history of the earth sciences, namely Eduard Suess, the creator of
modern global geology.
- A.M.C. Sengor, Laudation to Penrose Medallist GSA, 2001
Seine naurellgemäss Sinnesfäghigkeit lässt ihn wesentliche reale
Naturvorgänge exakt und schnell erkennen. Sein gesammeltes Wissen mit dem Mut und ohne
kleinmütige Aengstlichkeit, eine bekannte Problematik von einer komplett anderen
Seite zu betrachten, glückt Ken Hsü oft and bringt Erfolg. Dieses Talent der
originaren wissenschaftlichen Kreativität wird durch seine interkulturelle
Möglichket gefördert.
- Barbara Peters, Kenneth J. Hsu, in Physiognomie & Charakter, 2002
In the spring of 1952 when the Korean War was raging, the President of the United States issued an executive order that we Chinese scientists in America could not leave the country. I was finishing my Ph.D. dissertation, and the order necessitated that I sought employment in the United States. Not being a citizen, I was not eligible for employment by the government. Speaking with an alien accent, I applied in vain for a teaching post in university. Being a person of an Asiatic race, I could not find a job in industry either. Those were the days before the Equal Opportunity Act, and I was always told that there was no position for a person of my qualification. Finally my adviser Cordell Durrell suggested that I should not turn in my thesis so that I could maintain the status of a graduate student and continue my half-time employment as a teaching assistant. He also got me a research grant to map the basement rocks of San Bernardino Mountains. I spent 6 months in the field. When snow fell in November, I sought and found refuge in a cabin of the San Bernardino National Forest. Being a careless young man, I accidentally set the place on fire, and lost all my possessions, including all my maps. I was down and out. I thought of quitting geology; I thought I might become a writer while earning a living as a dish-washer. A miracle happened, Leo Newfarmer found a job for me as a trainee in the Shell Development Company at Houston, Texas. I became a professional geologist.
In the autumn of 1963 my first wife Ruth, who had always been homesick for Switzerland, died in an automobile accident in the United States. I was determined that I was to bring up our children in Switzerland, but jobs for geologists were scarce in that country. I made plans to open a Chinese laundry there, before another miracle happened. Rudolf Trümpy wrote me that a new professorship had been set up at the geology department of ETH Zurich, and the job was mine if I wanted it. I wanted the job, and I continued my career as a professional geologist.
In the early summer of this year, I w ent to Taiwan to sign a big contract to do a feasibility study of installing an integrated hydrologic circuit, one of my inventions in water-technology. My invention could provide 1.6 million tons of water daily to Metropolitan Kaohsiung, and my plan, if accepted, would have made it unnecessary to construct a 142-meter high-dam. I thought I was on my way to become a bill-gates. Arriving at the Taipeh Airport, I was handed two faxes: one confirming that the President of the Republic was to receive me in congratulation, the other from one of his ministers telling me that the contract was to be cancelled because of a government reorganization. I was that disappointment was to be the straw that broke the camel's back. I was giving up my quixotic effort to save the planet. Then I received a letter from the Geological Society of America notifying me of the Penrose Award. I was encouraged that I had been doing useful work as a professional geologist.
Each of the three incidents taught me something. I was taught to love my fellow people in 1953. I was taught to love God in 1964. I was taught humility in 2001. I am grateful to my colleagues, and this most recent peer-recognition has been as meaningful to me as the two miracles of a distant past.