Welcome to my website!
I am Gen-Chang Hsu, a young seedling ecologist ready to stretch out my shoots and roots!
I sprouted my interests in biology since high school, during which I participated in the 2014 International Biology Olympiad and was awarded a gold medal. Fascinated by the exquisite relationships between organisms and the environment, ecology since became my favorite field of biology and I have developed broad interests in various ecological topics. I am also into data science and visualization. Check out my Research page for more information.
I obtained my undergraduate degree from the Department of Life Science, National Taiwan University. My Bachelor’s thesis, advised by Dr. Chuan-Kai Ho, focused on using stable isotopes to examine arthropod predator-prey trophic interactions in rice agro-ecosystems. Later, I worked as a research assistant in Dr. Po-Ju Ke’s lab studying the temporal decay trajectory of plant-soil microbe interactions. We combined greenhouse experiments and microbial analysis to explore how conditioning history affects soil microbial communities and in turn influences seedling performance and vegetation dynamics.
Currently, I am a PhD student in Dr. Jennifer Thaler’s lab at Cornell working on plant-herbivore-predator tri-trophic interactions and the ecology of fear—non-consumptive predator effects on prey. By addressing basic ecological questions about how plants, insect herbivores, and predators interact with each other, I hope my research can help predict species interactions in response to environmental change as well as develop management strategies to enhance pest control in agro-ecosystems.
In my free time, I enjoy biking, hiking, bird watching, and photography. Traveling around to explore this n-dimensional world is my lifetime goal!
Education
Doctor of Philosophy (2023–Present), Department of Entomology, Cornell University.
Bachelor of Science (2015–2021), Department of Life Science, National Taiwan University.
Visiting student (2019–2020), Department of Integrative Biology, University of California, Berkeley.