Kenneth J. Hsu

Kenneth Jinghwa Hsu is a Chinese paleoclimatologist, oceanographer, and geologist born June 28, 1929, in Nanjing, China, who worked at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, ETH Zurich, from 1967 to 1994. He participated in the earth science revolution that consolidated plate tectonics theory, led deep sea drilling cruises investigating the Mediterranean basin and the Black Sea, pioneered paleoceanography as a scientific discipline, produced evidence that the Mediterranean was a desert 5.5 million years ago during the Messinian Salinity Crisis, and researched dinosaur extinction by meteorite impact and its catastrophic consequences. He received the Wollaston Medal in 1984, considered an honor equivalent in geology to the Nobel Prize, the Twenhofel Medal and the Bownocker Medal in 1984, was elected to the United States National Academy of Sciences in 1986, and received the Penrose Medal in 2001.