Kevin Hsu

Kevin Fan Hsu has worked on clean energy and sustainable development initiatives on both sides of the Pacific. He is pursuing a PhD in Infrastructure and Climate Planning, investigating strategies to make our ongoing climate transition more equitable, inclusive, and democratic.

Kevin’s research focuses on ways to accelerate the delivery of climate infrastructure in democratic societies—and in turn, whether successful infrastructure implementation can revive support for the liberal order. A key dimension of this work is to assess how national-level climate policies are implemented by cities and states, and query how local communities can share in the benefits of public works and green economy initiatives.

Kevin co-founded Infrastructure x Equity, a group that brings together government officials, green businesses, and development professionals to transform how infrastructure projects are delivered for present and future generations.

Before arriving at MIT, Kevin was a Lecturer at Stanford University's Hasso Plattner Institute of Design (d.school) and Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering, teaching classes such as International Urbanization, Civic Design, and Understand Energy. He continues to work with Stanford's Understand Energy team to make energy education available to a global audience. From 2018-2021, Kevin led the Resilience/Sustainability Research Cluster at the Centre for Liveable Cities in Singapore, a division of the Ministry of National Development. He concurrently served as a research fellow at the Urban Redevelopment Authority, the nation's land-use planning and conservation agency, where he developed digital tools for sustainability.

While in Singapore, Kevin 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, he bridged the study of cities with energy infrastructure, community mobility, and human-centered design, focusing on Disney's Shanghai and Hong Kong properties. In Shanghai, he headed the Young Leaders Group of the Urban Land Institute (ULI), and collaborated with faculty at HKU, CUHK, and Tsinghua to deliver the annual "Public Space Bootcamp" in Hong Kong. A proud member of the NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council) family, he worked on climate and energy issues with Barbara Finamore in Beijing.

Kevin holds an M.S. in Civil & Environmental Engineering, B.S. in Earth Systems, and B.A. in International Relations from Stanford University, and an M.A. in Cultural Heritage Management from Johns Hopkins University. He is an MIT Presidential Fellow.

Previous Fellowships:
AAAS Science and Technology Policy Fellow; Clean Energy Leadership Institute (CELI), 2022
Schneider-MAP Fellowship, 2010

Organizations:
Stanford Asian Pacific American Alumni Club, Board Member and Former President