Ted Hsu

Theodore Hsu, (; ; born March 4, 1964) is a Canadian physicist and politician. A member of the Liberal Party, he served as a Member of Parliament representing the riding of Kingston and the Islands for one term, from the 2011 election to 2015, holding various critic roles.
Early life and career.
Hsu was born in Bartlesville, Oklahoma, in 1964 to James and Marjorie and is of Chinese descent. He is fluent in French and Mandarin.. When he was six-months old, the family moved to Kingston, Ontario where his father joined Queen's University as a chemical engineering professor. He has two younger brothers, Bob and Leon. 
He graduated in 1980 from Loyalist Collegiate and Vocational Institute in Kingston at age 16. In 1984, he graduated from Queen's University with an honours bachelor of science in physics. He pursued graduate studies at Princeton University, where he received his Ph.D. in physics in 1989 after completing a doctoral dissertation titled "Towards an understanding of the large U-Hubbard model and a theory for high temperature superconductors", under the supervision of Philip W. Anderson. He did post-doctoral research in Chalk River, Vancouver, and France.
Hsu has worked as a researcher and trader in Paris and Philadelphia for Banque Nationale de Paris, and as an executive director in the Tokyo office of Morgan Stanley. Hsu is also a member of SWITCH, a Kingston-based not-for-profit association that promotes job creation and investment in sustainable energy. From 2007 to 2011, he served as the executive director of SWITCH. Currently, he is the secretary for SWITCH and is also the director for private businesses and residences. 
In 2017, Hsu joined SYNG pharmaceuticals, a Kingston-based biotechnology startup focusing on diagnosing and treating endometriosis. Hsu is an advisor for SYNG, helping with the company with communications and corporate publicity.
Politics.
Hsu was the treasurer of the Kingston and the Islands Federal Liberal Association for four years, and was an active member of its policy committee. He worked in the 2007 and 2008 provincial and federal Liberal campaigns for John Gerretsen and Peter Milliken. Following Milliken's announcement in summer 2010 that he would not seek re-election, a nomination contest was set up, and in November, Hsu won the Liberal nomination to be the party's 2011 candidate for Member of Parliament (MP).
In Parliament.
In the federal election held on May 2, 2011, Hsu defeated Conservative candidate Alicia Gordon by less than 3,000 votes. The election was the Liberal Party's worst showing in its history and Hsu was one of only two new Liberals elected in the country.
On June 1, 2011, interim Liberal leader Bob Rae announced that Hsu would serve in the Liberal Party shadow cabinet as the critic for science and technology, critic for the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontarioy and critic for the Federal Economic Development Initiative for Northern Ontario. On November 21, 2011, Hsu was the first runner-up to Conservative MP Chris Alexander as Rookie of the Year, in "Maclean's" annual Parliamentarians of the Year awards.
In June 2012, Hsu was named chair of the Ontario federal Liberal Caucus. On November 21, 2012, Hsu was the first runner-up for the Rising Star award, in "Maclean's" annual Parliamentarians of the Year awards.
In August 2013, Liberal leader Justin Trudeau appointed Hsu to the additional role as Liberal critic for post-secondary education.
In November 2013, Hsu was the winner of a "Maclean's" Parliamentarian of the Year Award. He was voted by parliamentarians from all parties as the MP who "Best Represents Constituents".
In August 2014, Hsu announced that he would not run for re-election in the upcoming 2015 federal election citing the burdens of political life on his young family.
In September, 2014, he introduced private member's bill, "Bill C-626, An Act to amend the Statistics Act" with the intention appointing a Chief Statistician and reinstatement of the long-form census which had been abandoned by Canada in 2011. (See Canada 2011 Census)
After office.
After leaving the House of Commons, Ted Hsu became a co-chair of Kingston's task force on housing. Hsu served as the campaign manager for Liberal MPP Sophie Kiwala during the 2018 provincial election in Ontario. In 2019, during the Canadian federal election, Hsu also managed the successful re-election campaign of Mark Gerretsen, the Liberal MP who replaced him. The following year, Hsu announced his campaign for candidacy in the Ontario Liberal Party citing a need for someone with his science policy experience amid the Covid-19 pandemic.