Dr. Shiu Ying Hu, eminent Chinese botanist of the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University and the Chinese University of Hong Kong, and one of the first females to receive a doctorate degree from Harvard, will be honored at a ceremony at Chinese University of Hong Kong.

Dr. Hu, who recently celebrated her 100th birthday, is a prominent scholar in plant taxonomy and a prolific researcher committed to the study of Chinese medicinal plants, food plants, orchids, and the flora of Hong Kong. Throughout her long and distinguished career, she has been an unfailing enthusiast of botany and of co-operation among Chinese and western botanists. During the many years that formal relations between China and the United States were nonexistent, Dr. Hu was instrumental in providing invaluable literature and monetary support to scores of Chinese botanists. She was the second Chinese female to receive a Ph.D. in botany from Radcliffe College of Harvard University, and she continued her career at Harvard for another 3 decades. Even in retirement she would be in her office at the Herbaria every day, writing floristic treatments, serving as hostess to Chinese visiting scholars, sharing her broad knowledge of the plant world and her famous Chinese dinners with staff and students alike. On Feb 26, CUHK will celebrate Dr. Hu's passion for plants and for life, and fellow alumni are invited to attend.