David Hu (scientist)
{{short description|American biologist}}
File:The 29th First Annual Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony (2019).webm
David L. Hu (born circa 1979) is an American mathematician, roboticist, and biologist who is currently an associate professor at the engineering department of Georgia Tech. His research centers on animal behavior and movement, and is noted for its eccentricity.{{cite web |url=https://www.news.gatech.edu/2015/10/15/david-hu-takes-home-ig-nobel-prize-improbable-research |title=David Hu Takes Home Ig Nobel Prize for 'Improbable Research' |date=15 October 2015 |publisher=Georgia Tech |access-date=20 April 2020 }}
Hu was born in Rockville, Maryland, and as high school student he was a semifinalist in the Westinghouse Science Talent Search.{{cite web |url=https://cos.gatech.edu/hg/item/626798 |title=Cube-Shaped Poo and Georgia Tech's Second Ig Nobel Prize |date=9 October 2019 |website=Georgia Tech College of Sciences |publisher=Georgia Tech |access-date=20 April 2020 }}{{cite news |last1=Erlichman |first1=Janelle |title=Area H.S. Has 9 in Prestigious Westinghouse Semifinals |url=https://cnsmaryland.org/1997/01/24/area-h-s-has-9-in-prestigious-westinghouse-semifinals/ |work=CNS Maryland |date=24 January 1997}} His father was a chemist who enjoyed collecting and dissecting road kill, which inspired his son's curiosity regarding the science of living things.{{cite news |last1=Hu |first1=David L. |title=My Father, the Chemist, Teaches Anatomy |url=https://www.scientificamerican.com/blog/observations/my-father-the-chemist-teaches-anatomy/ |work=Scientific American |date=June 13, 2018 |language=en}} He received his Bachelor's degree and Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.{{cite web |last1=Mallinson |first1=Alissa Mariello |title=David Hu |url=https://meche.mit.edu/people/david-hu |website=MIT Department of Mechanical Engineering |date=26 Feb 2015}}
Hu is married to Dr. Jia Fan, a data scientist employed by AT&T with whom he has two children.{{cite news |last=Gorman |first=James |date=5 November 2018 |title=The Mysteries of Animal Movement |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/05/science/hu-robotics.html |work=The New York Times |access-date=20 April 2020 }} Hu's children have inspired some of his research projects. "From a diaper change with my son, I was inspired to study urination. From watching my daughter being born, I was inspired by her long eyelashes."{{cite news |last=Frum |first=Larry |date=3 October 2019 |title=The American Institute of Physics Announces 2019 Science Communication Award Winners |url=https://www.aip.org/news/2019/american-institute-physics-announces-2019-science-communication-award-winners |work=American Institute of Physics |access-date=20 April 2020 }}
Hu is known for focusing on irreverent and whimsical research subjects. In 2016 his work was criticized by Arizona Senator Jeff Flake as one of the twenty most wasteful federally funded research projects.{{Cite episode |title=Senator Jeff Flake's List of Wasteful Government Research Studies |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0vfAptbLk1g |access-date=20 April 2020 |series=Fox & Friends |network=FOX News |date=10 May 2016 }} Hu responded to this criticism with a TEDx talk in which he embraced the label of "the country's most wasteful scientist" and criticized the senator's understanding of the scientific method.{{cite journal |last1=Hu |first1=David |date=25 May 2016 |title=Confessions of a Wasteful Scientist |url=https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/guest-blog/confessions-of-a-wasteful-scientist/ |journal=Scientific American |access-date=20 April 2020}}
Recognition
Hu has twice won the Ig Nobel Prize for Physics.{{cite web |url=https://www.improbable.com/ig-about/winners/#ig2015 |title=The Ig Nobel Prize Winners |website=improbable.com |date=August 2006 |publisher=Improbable Research |access-date=20 April 2020 }} In 2015 he shared the prize with Patricia Yang for research on the duration of animal urination, in which Yang and Hu found that nearly all mammals evacuate their bladders in approximately 21 seconds plus or minus 13 seconds.{{cite journal |last1=Yang |first1=Patricia |last2=Hu |first2=David |last3=Pham |first3=Jonathan |last4=Choo | first4=Jerome |date=19 August 2014 |title=Duration of urination does not change with body size |journal=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America |volume=111 |issue=33 |pages=11932–11937 |doi=10.1073/pnas.1402289111 |doi-access=free |pmid=24969420 |pmc=4143032 |bibcode=2014PNAS..11111932Y }} In 2019 Hu and colleagues won the prize for studying the means of production of the cubical feces of wombats.{{cite journal |last1=Yang |first1=Patricia |last2=Hu |first2=David |date=18 November 2018 |title=How do wombats make cubed poo? |url=http://meetings.aps.org/Meeting/DFD18/Session/E19.1 |journal=Bulletin of the American Physical Society |volume=63 |issue=13 |access-date=20 April 2020}}
He was named a Fellow of the American Physical Society in 2023, "for innovative experiments in biological fluid mechanics and a willingness to share them with young scientists".{{cite web|url=https://www.aps.org/programs/honors/fellowships/archive-all.cfm?initial=&year=2023|title=2023 Fellows|work=APS Fellow Archive|publisher=American Physical Society|access-date=2023-10-22}}