Hu was born in
Suqian,
Jiangsu, China on 11 February 1916. From 1928 to 1934, Hu studied at the
Zhenjiang High School () in
Zhenjiang, and
Suzhou High School in
Suzhou. In 1935, Hu studied at the physical department of
Zhejiang University in
Hangzhou, Zhejiang. From 1935 to 1937, Hu studied in the department of physics at
Tsinghua University in Beijing, where he graduated in 1938. After his graduation from Tsinghua, Hu became the
teaching assistant for his professor
Zhou Peiyuan in the department of physics. In 1940, Hu examed and won the
Boxer Indemnity Scholarship Program. In 1941, Hu went to study in the United States. Hu studied
fluid mechanics at the
California Institute of Technology. His doctoral advisor was
Theodore von Kármán. Hu also studied
quantum mechanics under
Paul Sophus Epstein during this period. Hu obtained his PhD in 1943 from Caltech. From 1944 to 1945, Hu stayed at the
Institute for Advanced Study in
Princeton, New Jersey, and studied
quantum field theory and basic particles theories under
Wolfgang Pauli. From 1946 to 1949, Hu visited Europe. He worked at the
Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies in
Dublin, Ireland between 1946 and 1948. During this time he also visited the
Niels Bohr Institute in Copenhagen. Hu went back to the United States, and from 1949 to 1950, Hu did research at the nuclear physics department of the
Cornell University, New York. In 1950, invited by the
physicist Ta-You Wu (at that time, Wu headed the Theoretical Physics Division of the
Canadian National Research Council), Hu went to Canada, and did research and lectured there. In 1951, Hu accepted the invitation from
Peking University in Beijing, and went back to China. Hu was a long-time professor in the department of physics at Peking University. Since 1953, Hu was a researcher at the Institute of Modern Physics () and the Institute of Nuclear Physics () of the
Chinese Academy of Sciences. From 1956 to 1959, Hu was a researcher and group leader at the
Joint Institute for Nuclear Research,
USSR. Since 1980, Hu was a researcher at the Institute of Theoretical Physics () of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing. Hu was elected academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 1955. Hu was appointed the first
director-general of Peking University Research Institute of Theoretical Physics (). Hu died in Beijing on 16 December 1997. ==Publications==