Kevin Hsu

Kevin Fan Hsu has worked on energy and sustainable development initiatives on both sides of the Pacific. He is pursuing his Ph.D. in Infrastructure, Energy, and Climate Planning at MIT, integrating scholarship on environmental policy and democracy studies. His work aims to make energy systems more effective, inclusive, and democratic. Some research projects include:

Accelerating Infrastructure Delivery: Mapping institutional barriers to energy development in democratic societies, and the mechanisms through which stakeholders in the infrastructure ecosystem exercise influence (including the private sector, local government, and civil society). The research also identifies project- and policy-level strategies to surmount these challenges and accelerate the delivery of energy infrastructure, while maintaining respect for the rights of individuals and local communities. Some dimensions of this work include:

• mapping state/business interactions that influence infrastructure implementation
• developing indicators of the pace of delivery for energy projects in the United States
• assessing how federal climate/energy policies are received and implemented by cities and states, and evaluating the degree to which local communities share in the benefits of public works and green economy initiatives

Climate Change, Heritage, and Resilient Development: Identifying co-benefits of heritage in support of nations' sustainable development priorities. Exploring the intersection of heritage safeguarding (tangible and intangible), and strengthening whole-of-society resilience in the face of a changing climate.

Energy Security and Strategic Competition: Enhancing national security and long-term competitiveness through development of robust energy supply chains and joint energy planning between the United States and partners in the Indo-Pacific.

AI and Cities: Developing a framework for responsible AI adoption by cities. As artificial intelligence technologies proliferate, how can they be harnessed by cities to promote social and economic welfare, strengthen democratic institutions, and improve the functioning of municipal government?

Activities

Climate Planning Forum: Kevin is an organizer of the MIT Climate Planning Forum, a cross-departmental initiative that brings together researchers, practitioners, and advocates to discuss climate planning, with a focus on policy formulation and real-world implementation.

Infrastructure x Equity: Kevin co-founded Infrastructure x Equity, a group that works with government officials, green businesses, and development professionals to transform how infrastructure projects are delivered for present and future generations. An ongoing initiative explores how cities and companies can partner to make the green economy work for local communities. The publication, "Better Neighbors: Improving the Local Green Economy Ecosystem" discusses key challenges that are arising as as battery and energy storage companies expand their manufacturing footprint in Bay Area cities, and promising directions for addressing them.

Professional Experience

Kevin co-teaches the "Understand Energy" course in the Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering at Stanford University. He has also been an instructor in Stanford's Hasso Plattner Institute of Design (d.school), Urban Studies, and International Policy Studies, where he taught classes such as "International Urbanization" and "Civic Design." He continues to work with the Understand Energy Learning Hub at Stanford to make energy education available to a global audience. He spearheaded a collaboration with faculty at the University of Hong Kong, Chinese University of Hong Kong, and Tsinghua University to organize an annual, cross-cultural Public Space Bootcamp for students from all participating institutions at field sites in Beijing and Hong Kong.

From 2018-2021, Kevin led the Resilience/Sustainability Research Cluster at the Centre for Liveable Cities (CLC) in the Singapore Ministry of National Development. He concurrently served as a research fellow at the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA), the nation's land-use planning and conservation agency, where he developed digital tools for sustainability with the Digital Planning Lab. While in Singapore, he collaborated with the National Heritage Board to explore how efforts to safeguard built heritage and promote cultural continuity intersect with national priorities in sustainability and resilience.

As an urban scientist with The Walt Disney Company beginning in 2015, Kevin bridged the study of cities with energy infrastructure, community mobility, and human-centered design. Projects with Disney Research China involved extensive fieldwork in Disney's Shanghai and Hong Kong properties. A proud alum of the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) family, Kevin worked on energy and environment issues with Barbara Finamore in Beijing.

He has also served as a Global Affairs Advisor at the U.S. State Department's Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs.

Education
M.S. in Civil & Environmental Engineering, Stanford University
M.A. in Cultural Heritage Management from Johns Hopkins University
B.S. in Earth Systems & B.A. in International Relations, Stanford University

Selected Publications

Gilbert M. Masters and Kevin F. Hsu (2023) Renewable and Efficient Electric Power Systems, 3rd Edition. Textbook on clean energy. Published by Wiley.

Hsu, Kevin F. and Jenq, Christina (2023) “Better Neighbors: Improving the Local Green Economy Ecosystem.” Roundtable Report. Infrastructure x Equity. (link)

Hsu, Kevin F. (2022) “Memory in a Time of Change: Utilizing Digital Tools to Support Community Values and Climate Resilience.” Cultural Heritage Administration, Republic of Korea. (link)

Hsu, Kevin Fan (2021) “Reframing Public Spaces Reframing Public Spaces as Civic Goods for as Civic Goods for Resilient Cities.” Urban Solutions. (link to journal) (link to article)

Chua, A., Ow, S., Hsu, K., Wang Y., Chirico M., Huang Z. (2020) “Distilling actionable insights from big travel demand datasets for city planning.” Research in Transportation Economics. (link)

Hsu, K. F. (2020) “Reframing Public Spaces: from Recreational Amenity to Civic Good in Resilient Cities: COVID-19 Offers an Opportunity to Re-evaluate Neighbourhood Spaces to Ensure they are Available to All”, The Journal of Public Space, 5(3), pp. 67–82. doi: 10.32891/jps.v5i3.1416 (link)

Fellowships
AAAS Science & Technology Policy Fellowship (2023)
MIT Presidential Fellowship (2022)
Clean Energy Leadership Institute (CELI) Fellowship (2021)
Schneider-MAP Fellowship (2010)
Gates Cambridge Scholarship, Scholar-Elect

Organizations
ICOMOS Climate Action Working Group, Communications Group Lead
MIT Climate Planning Forum, Organizer
Stanford Asian Pacific American Alumni Club (SAPAAC), past President and Board Member

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