Professor T.C. Hsu (Traditional Chinese: 徐道覺, Simplified Chinese: 徐道觉; pinyin: Xú Dàojué), (17 April 1917 – 9 July 2003), was a Chinese American cell biologist. He was the 13th president of American Society for Cell Biology, and known as the Father of Mammalian Cytogenetics [1].
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Hsu was born Tao-Chiuh Hsu in Shaoxing, Zhejiang, China. He did his undergraduate and postgraduate studies in the College of Agricultural Sciences, Zhejiang University. 1948, he went to USA, and obtained PhD from the University of Texas at Austin in 1951.
He determined the accurate haploid chromosome number of Homo sapiens and characterized the human karyotype. His historic paper "Mammalian chromosomes in vitro - the karyotype of Man" was published in 1952. [2][3]
He worked in the laboratory of Charles Pomerat at UTMB in the early 50s where he discovered an improved method of preparing chromosomes that led to the accurate identification of 23 pairs of chromosomes in human somatic cells. He was president of the American Society for Cell Biology and served on faculty at M.D. Anderson for more than 30 years. He was a UTMB GSBS Distinguished Alumnus Award recipient in 1996. He is also a recipient of The International Center in New York's Award of Excellence.
His autobiography was published in the American Journal of Medical Genetics 59:304-325 (1995).
He died in Houston, Texas, USA.