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Hu and Wu, Thinking outside the box: story of spin-mediated consciousness theory

Men Who Made a New Science Invited Article

Thinking Outside the Box

The Essence and Implications of Quantum Entanglement

and the Story of Spin-mediated Consciousness Theory

Huping Hu and Maoxin Wu1

Abstract
Many experiments have shown that quantum entanglement is physically real. In
this article, we will discuss its ontological origin/nature, implications and potential
applications by thinking outside the standard interpretations of quantum
mechanics. We argue that quantum entanglement originates from the primordial
spin processes in non-spatial and non-temporal pre-spacetime, implies genuine
interconnectedness and inseparableness of once interacting quantum entities, play
vital roles in biology and consciousness and, once better understood and
harnessed, has far-reaching consequences and applications in many fields such as
medicine and neuroscience. Then, we will recall our journey into the field of
consciousness studies and the inception and development of the spin-mediated
consciousness theory.

Key Words: Spin, entanglement, interconnectedness, inseparableness,

consciousness, quantum brain theory

NeuroQuantology 2006 ;1:5-16

When in the course of scientific endeavor, it becomes apparent that deeper truth exist, a
decent respect to Nature requires that such truths be explored. We hold these truths to be
scientifically approachable, that all forms of existence are interconnected, that they
possess certain fundamental and unalienable properties. That to describe this
interconnectedness and these properties, successive theories shall be constructed by
mankind, deriving their explanatory and predictive powers from the approximations of
laws of Nature. That whenever any theory becomes inadequate of these ends, it is the
duties of mankind to modify it or to abolish it, and to establish new ones, laying the
foundation on such principles and organizing the structures in such forms, as to mankind
shall seem most likely to reflect their understanding and knowledge of Nature.
In memory of Thomas Jefferson

Corresponding author:1Huping Hu, Ph.D., J.D., Biophysics Consulting Group, 25 Lubber Street, Stony Brook, NY
11790, USA. E-mail: [email protected]

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Introduction
Quantum entanglement is ubiquitous, appears everywhere in the microscopic world (See,
e.g., Durt, 2004; Brooks, 2005) and under some circumstances manifests itself
macroscopically (Arnesen, et al, 2001; Ghost et al, 2003 & Julsgaard et al, 2001). Indeed, it is
currently the most intensely studied subject in physics. Further, speculations abound as to
its nature and implications (See, e.g., Clarke, 2004, Josephson, 1991 & Radin, 2004). There
are many general and technical papers written on the subject. So cutting to the chase, we
shall immediately outline our propositions on the subject and then discuss each in some
detail with references to existing literature whenever possible. Readers are advised that our
propositions are outside the mainstream physics. Later in this article, we shall recall our
journey into the field of consciousness studies and the inception and development of the
spin-mediated consciousness theory.
The following are our propositions about the ontological origin/nature, implications and
potential applications of quantum entanglement:
1. It originates from the primordial spin processes in non-spatial and non-temporal
pre-spacetime. It is the quantum “glue” holding once interacting quantum entities
together in pre-spacetime, implies genuine interconnectedness and inseparableness
of the said quantum entities and can be directly sensed and utilized by the entangled
quantum entities.
2. Thus, it affects chemical/biochemical reactions, other physical processes and micro-
and macroscopic properties of all forms of matters as already shown by some
authors in the latter case. It plays vital roles in many biological processes and
consciousness. It is the genuine cause of many so called anomalous effects (if they
do exist) in parapsychology, alternative medicine and other fields as some authors
have already suspected in some cases
3. Further, it can be harnessed, tamed and developed into revolutionary technologies
to serve the mankind in many areas such as health, medicine and even recreation
besides the already emerging fields of quantum computation and communications.

Origin and Nature of Quantum Entanglement

Popular opinion has it that Erwin Shrödinger coined the word “entanglement” and first used
it in 1935 in his article published in the Proceedings of Cambridge Philosophical Society
(Shrödinger, 1935). Mathematically, Shrödinger showed that entanglement arises from the
interactions of two particles through the evolution of Shrödinger equation and called this
phenomenon the characteristic trait of quantum theory (id.). Einstein called quantum
entanglement “spooky action at a distance” in the famous EPR debate (See, e.g., Einstein et
al, 1935).
Ontologically, we argue that quantum entanglement arises from the primordial
self-referential spin processes which we had argued previously are the driving force behind
quantum mechanics, spacetime dynamics and consciousness (Hu & Wu, 2003; 2004a).
Pictorially, two interacting quantum entities such as two electrons get entangled with each
other through the said spin processes by exchanging one or more entangling photons with
entangling occurring in pre-spacetime. Such ontological interpretation is supported by the
existing literature as discussed below.

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First, Hestenes showed that in the geometric picture for the Dirac electron the
zitterbewegung associated with the spin is responsible for all known quantum effects of said
electron and the imagery number i in the Dirac equation is said to be due to electronic spin
(See, e.g., Hestines, 1983).
Second, in Bohmian mechanics, the “quantum potential” is responsible for quantum
effects (Bohm and Hiley, 1993). Salesi and Recami (1998) have recently shown that said
potential is a pure consequence of “internal motion” associated with spin evidencing that the
quantum behavior be a direct consequence of the fundamental existence of spin. Esposito
(1999) has expanded this result by showing that “internal motion” is due to the spin of the
particle, whatever its value. Bogan (2002) has further expanded these results by deriving a
spin-dependent gauge transformation between the Hamilton-Jacobi equation of classical
mechanics and the time-dependent Shrödinger equation of quantum mechanics which is a
function of the quantum potential of Bohmian mechanics.
Third, spin is a unique quantum concept often being said to have no classical
counterpart (See Tomonaga, 1997). Unlike mass and charge that enter a dynamic equation as
arbitrary parameters, spin reveals itself through the structure of the relativistic quantum
equation for fermions that combines quantum mechanics with special relativity (Dirac, 1928).
Indeed, many models of elementary particles and even space-time itself are built with spinors
(Budinich, 2001; Penrose, 1960 & 1967). Pauli (1927) and Dirac (1928) were the first to use
spinors to describe the electron. Also, Kiehn (1999) showed that the absolute square of the
wave function could be interpreted as vorticity distribution of a viscous compressible fluid
that also indicates that spin is the process driving quantum mechanics.
Therefore, in view of the foregoing it could be said that the driving force behind the
evolution of Shrödinger equation is quantum spin and, since quantum entanglement arises
from the evolution of Shrödinger equation the said spin is the genuine cause of quantum
entanglement.
What do we mean by pre-spacetime? Pre-spacetime in this article means a non-spatial
and non-temporal domain but it is not associated with an extra-dimension in the usual sense
since there is no distance or time in such domain (See, Hu & Wu, 2002). We have argued
before that in a dualistic approach mind resides in this domain and unpaired nuclear and/or
electronic spins are its mind-pixels (id.). So pre-spacetime is a holistic domain located
outside spacetime but connected through quantum thread/channel to everywhere in
spacetime enabling quantum entanglement or Einstein’s “spooky action at a distance.” Aerts
(2004), Clarke (2004) and others have also expressed the non-space view of quantum
nonlocality.
Such a non-spatial and non-temporal pre-spacetime is a “world” beyond Einstein’s
relativistic world but does not contradict with the latter since the latter deals with classical
physical events occurring within spacetime. In contrast, quantum entanglement occurs within
non-spatial and non-temporal domain. Therefore, instantaneous signaling through quantum
entanglement in pre-spacetime is possible if the entangled quantum entities can directly
sense and/or utilize the entanglement.

So what is then the essence of quantum entanglement? We propose that quantum

entanglement is not merely the correlations of certain physical parameters in the process of

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measurement but genuine interconnectedness and inseparableness of once interacting

quantum entities. It is the quantum “glue” holding once interacting quantum entities together
in pre-spacetime and can be directly sensed and utilized by the entangled quantum entities as
further discussed below. It can be diluted through entanglement with the environment, i.e.,
decoherence.

Implications of Quantum Entanglement

It is often said that instantaneous signaling through quantum entanglement is impossible
because of Eberhard’s theorem that basically says that since local measurements always
produce random results no information can be sent through quantum entanglement alone
(Eberhard, 1978). However, there are two ways to circumvent this impossibility. But both
require one to go beyond the standard interpretations of quantum mechanics. The first is to
assume that the statistical outcomes of quantum measurement can be affected or modified
by consciousness. Quite a few authors have expressed this view (Josephson, 1991; Stapp,
1982 & Walker, 1974) especially when discussing phenomena in parapsychology such as
telepathy. The second is to assume that each quantum entity can directly sense and utilize
quantum entanglement as already mentioned before. This latter view is the view we
subscribe to.
The implication of the second view is far-reaching. It means that quantum entanglement
can affects chemical and biochemical reactions and other physical processes. Thus, it plays
vital roles in many biological processes and consciousness and is the genuine cause of many
anomalous effects, if they do exist, in parapsychology, alternative medicine and other fields as
some authors have already suspected in some case. It can affect the micro- and macroscopic
properties of all forms of matters such solid and liquid.
For example, the results reported by Rey (2003) that heavy water and highly diluted
solutions of sodium chloride and lithium chloride behaved differently in the thermo-
luminescence tests can be explained as the consequence of water molecules forming
different hydrogen bonds due to the entanglement of water molecule with sodium chloride
or lithium chloride ions being diluted out of existence and its subsequent effect on hydrogen
bond formation during freezing. Indeed, in light of the recent results on observable
macroscopic entanglement effects (Arnesen, et al, 2001; Ghost et al, 2003), the explanation
offered herein is most likely true.
For a second example, the so called “memory of water” effect (Davenas, et al, 1988),
which is largely discredited by the mainstream scientists because of non-reproducibility, can
be explained as the result of entanglement of the substances being diluted with water and
then the subsequent entanglement of water with the quantum entities in the biochemical
processes responsible for producing certain visible or detectable result. Of course, quantum
entanglement cannot directly serve as a reagent in a chemical reaction nor can it be
recorded or transferred through any classical means such as a digital device within a
computer or the telephone wire. So any claim of recordable or telephone -wire-transferable
“chemical signal” cannot be attributed to quantum entanglement.

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Similarly, the therapeutic effect of a homeopathic remedy, if it truly exists beyond and
above the placebo effect, can be explained as the entanglement of the substances being
diluted out of existence through vigorous shaking/stirring with the diluting solvent and then
the subsequent entanglement of the solvent with the quantum entities involved in the
diseased biological and/or physiological processes and the effect of such entanglement on
the latter processes. Indeed, there are reports in the existing literature exploring the use of
generalized entanglement to explain the therapeutic ingredient in a homeopathic remedy
(See, e.g., Milgrom, 2002; Wallach, 2000 & Weingärtner, 2003).
Further, many other unconventional healing effects reported in alternative medicine, if
they are genuine, can be explained as the results of quantum entanglement between the
quantum entities involved in the diseased processes and the quantum entities in the healing
sources, such as a healthy biological entity, and the effect of the former on the latter
processes.
For yet another example, all the results from Princeton Engineering Anomalies
Research program over the last 26 years (Jahn & Dunne, 2005) can also be straightforwardly
explained as the entanglement of the quantum entities controlled by human mind with the
quantum entities responsible for the physical processes capable of producing modified
random results. By the same token, many if not all anomalous effects reported
parapsychology such as telepathy and those results reported by Grinberg- Zylberbaum
(1987) and the repeaters (For a summary, see, Wackermann, 2005) can be simply explained
as the results of quantum entanglement between the quantum entities capable of invoking
action potentials in one person and those in a second person and the effect of one on the
other through quantum entanglement. Grinberg-Zylberbaum himself speculated that his
results had something to do with quantum entanglement (1994).

Potential Applications of Quantum Entanglement

Recently, quantum computation and communication through teleportation have been
achieved in the laboratory but they are implemented in controlled environment to prevent
decoherence through entanglement of the system of interests with the said environment.
Indeed, it is also often said that the reason why we don’t experience quantum entanglement
in the macroscopic world is because of rapid decoherence within the macroscopic system.
However, this view may rapidly change (See, e.g., Brooks, 2005). We are convinced that
quantum entanglement can be harnessed, tamed and developed into revolutionary
technologies to serve the mankind in many areas such as health, medicine and even
recreation besides the emerging fields of quantum computation and communications.
For example, once harnessed, quantum entanglement technologies can be used to
deliver the therapeutic effects of many drugs to a target biological system such as a human
body without ever physically administrating the said drugs to the said system. Such
technology would dramatically reduce waste and increase productivity because the same
drugs can be repeatedly used to deliver their therapeutic effects to the mass. By the same
token, many substances of nutritional and even recreational values can be repeatedly
administrated to the human body through the said technologies. For a second example, the
harnessed quantum entanglement technologies can also be used to entangle two or more

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human minds for legitimate purposes. Further, the said technologies can be used for
instantaneous communications with humans sent to the outer space.
Are we delusional? Only time will tell. But we are convinced that the wonders of
quantum entanglement technologies will be realized very soon and a new paradigm of
science will be born in the near future.

The Story of Spin-Mediated Consciousness Theory

Like many others before us, our motive for studying consciousness is self-enlightenment. By
that we mean that we would like to find out the answers to the big questions: who are we,
where did we come from, where are we going to and how can we achieve immortality?
Obviously, to find answers to these big questions, we need first find out what is
consciousness and how does the brain produce consciousness?
The inception of the spin-mediated consciousness theory was cultivated by several
factors. Author Hu has had a long involvement with the studies and experimental
applications of both electronic and nuclear spins. He used to study theoretical physics on his
own during his undergraduate days in China during 1979-1983 while majoring chemistry
(not by choice). He took the graduate entrance examination in theoretical physics offered
by the Department of Physics, Lanzhou University, China in the spring of 1983 and got
accepted into its graduate program. Upon arrival for interview with his advisor Professor
Yishi Duan, Duan told him that biophysics, an interdisciplinary field, was a much more
exciting place to be then theoretical physics, especially with Hu’s background in chemistry.
Hu listened and got transferred to the Biophysics Division in the Department of Biology
with Professor Rongliang Zheng as his supervisor. Hu studied biophysics under Zheng
during 1983-1986, was exposed to a variety of biophysical instrumentations and did his
thesis research on the biological effects of free radicals by applying electron spin resonance
(“ESR”) spectroscopy. There he also learned that oxygen has two unpaired electrons and
thus, is paramagnetic and is involved in many free radical mediated biological processes. In
the meantime, Hu continued his study of theoretical physics on his own and published a few
papers in the areas of Dirac magnetic monopoles and non-Abelian gauge fields. Hu also tried
to crack the DNA codes, that is, to find the internal meanings of the triplet codes, wrote an
unpublished manuscript about it and given seminars on it. He also published a short article
on the concept of “individual entropy” and its conservation law in a Chinese magazine called
“Potential Science.”
Upon graduation in 1986, Hu applied to the Department of Physiology and Biophysics,
University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana for his Ph.D. study in biophysics and got accepted
there with Professor Harold M. Swartz as his supervisor. Indeed, he owes much to Zheng
and Swartz for the opportunity. His Ph.D. study, besides mandatory and selective courses in
biophysics and related field such as NMR and MRI, was focused on the development of
nitroxides, which contain stable unpaired electrons, for simultaneous measurement of intra-
and extracellular oxygen concentration using ESR spectroscopy. Hu spent five years from
1987 to 1991 at University of Illinois before he got his Ph.D. in biophysics. Hu married the
second author Wu in 1986 in China and worked with her in Swartz’s laboratory for a few
years while she was pursuing her Master’s degrees. Later, Wu went on to obtain her Ph.D.,
finished her medical training and became a medical doctor.

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It was during the period of his Ph.D. studies Hu read some articles and papers in the
journal Nature about the mechanism of general anesthesia and came up with the ideas of
active oxygen transportations in cells which he discussed with Swartz and perturbation of
oxygen pathways being involved in general anesthesia which he only discussed with Wu
thinking the latter idea was too premature.
After obtaining his Ph.D., Hu then left science and went into business for a few years
from 1991 to 1993. After he failed at business, he applied and went to New York Law
School to study for his law degree from 1994 through 1997. While he was attending law
school in the evenings, he worked for the Bronx District Attorneys’ Office for a while and
then for a law firm located in Manhattan. Upon graduation from law school and admission
to the New York Bar in the spring of 1999, Hu went to Wall Street and worked at a few
Wall Street firms as a proprietary trader while practiced law on the side until 2003. After
Wall Street cooled down, Hu in 2004 set up his own law practice in Flushing, New York
and is currently a full-time practicing attorney.
In late 2000, Hu decided to search the Internet and see whether progress had been
made in field of general anesthesia when he got bored at trading stocks during the day. He
ran across a 1994 News Week article predicting that the mystery of general anesthesia
would be solved within five years. It was late 2000 and clearly that prediction utterly failed.
It was then Hu decided to further research his earlier idea of oxygen pathway perturbation
by general anesthetics and decided to write a paper on it after some ten years had pasted
since the idea first came to him. After the paper was written with Wu, Wu suggested to try
a journal called Medical Hypotheses that she had heard would publish novel ideas in
medicine and related areas. Hu tried and the paper was accepted and publishing in 2001 (Hu
& Wu, 2001). At about the same time, Hu ran across a physics e-print server called
xxx.lanl.gov and was able to load the paper on January 24, 2001 to that server by using
Wu’s academic affiliation with Mount Sinai School of Medicine.
Their anesthetic paper was entitled “Mechanism of anesthetic action; oxygen pathway
perturbation hypothesis” which basically says general anesthetics produce unconsciousness
by perturbing oxygen pathways in neural membranes and proteins (Hu & Wu, 2001). This
view is not at all accepted by the scientific community at large. Indeed, there are no
commonly accepted theory on how general anesthetics work, despite they have been in use
for more than 150 years.
After the anesthetic paper was published, Hu got very interested in solving the mystery
of consciousness and spent all his waking moments besides trading stocks thinking about the
problem. One late evening while brushing his teath and getting ready to go to bed, Hu
suddenly hit the idea that the unpaired nuclear spin and/or electron spins inside the
high-voltage neural membranes could be the key to the mystery of consciousness and
immedately told Wu about it and she agreed that it is a great candidate. Although Hu knew
the importance of the concept of quantum spin in physics for a long time and even
contemplated its roles in biology during his graduate school days, it was that night his
previous vague ideas get focued and crystalized. Thus, the spin-mediated conscousness
theory was born. It took the authors almost a year to put a preliminary paper together and
deposit the same on August 11, 2002 into the physics archive xxx.lanl.gov (Hu & Wu, 2002).

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The initial reception to the theory by physicists through private e-mails was very
positive and encouraging, the same paper was also provisionally accepted for print
publication in November 2002 by a major consciousnes journal but was eventually rejected
in Janruary 2004 after two revisions and more than a year had passed. A more developed
version of the theory was presented in March 2003 at Quantum Mind 2003 and a further
developed version was published in Medical Hypotheses in mid 2004. Although published
reviews, criticisms or comments on this theory are negligible to non-existent, it is well
received at conferences and in private communications by some physicists and the like. Two
more papers on the same subject were also published in this electronic journal,
NeuroQuantology (Hu & Wu, 2004a; 2004c).
Briefly, the spin-mediated consciousness theory is a theory that says quantum spin is
the seat of consciousness and the linchpin between mind and the brain, that is, spin is the
mind-pixel (Hu & Wu, 2002, 2004a-d). According to this theory, consciousness is
intrinsically connected to the spin process and emerges from the self-referential collapses of
spin states and the unity of mind is achieved by entanglement of these mind-pixels (id.). It is
a tentative hypothesis as are all current hypotheses about consciousness.
The starting point is the fact that spin is basic quantum bit ("qubit") for encoding
information and, on the other hand, neural membranes and proteins are saturated with
nuclear spin carrying nuclei and form the matrice of brain electrical activities. Indeed, as
discussed above, spin is embedded in the microscopic structure of spacetime as reflected by
Dirac equation and is likely more fundamental than spacetime itself as implicated by Roger
Penrose’s work. In the Hestenes picture the zitterbewegung associated with spin was
shown to be responsible for the quantum effects of the fermion. Further, in the Bohm
picture the internal motion associated with spin has been shown to be responsible for the
quantum potential which, in turn, is responsible for quantum effects. Thus, if one adopts the
minority quantum mind view, nuclear spins and possibly unpaired electron spins become
natural candidates for mind-pixels (Hu & Wu, 2002; 2003; 2004a-d).
Applying these ideas to the particular structures and dynamics of the brain, the authors
theorize that human brain works as follows: Through action potential modulated nuclear
spin interactions and paramagnetic O2/NO driven activations, the nuclear spins inside
neural membranes and proteins form various entangled quantum states some of which
survive decoherence through quantum Zeno effects or in decoherence-free subspaces and
then collapse contextually via irreversible and non-computable means producing
consciousness and, in turn, the collective spin dynamics associated with said collapses have
effects through spin chemistry on classical neural activities thus influencing the neural
networks of the brain (Hu & Wu, 2002; 2003; 2004a-d). As with other quantum mind
theories, decoherence is a major concern as pointed out by Tegmark but may not be
insurmountable (See, e.g., Hameroff). We believe that the solution will be found through the
studies of quantum entanglement.
Existing literature supports the possibility of a spin-mediated consciousness. For
example, it was shown that proton nuclear spins in nematic liquid crystal can achieve
long-lived intra-molecular quantum coherence with entanglement in room temperature for
information storage (Khitrin et al, 2002). Long-ranged (>10 microns) intermolecular
multiple-quantum coherence in NMR spectroscopy was discovered about a decade ago

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(Warren, et al 1993). Long-lived (>.05 milliseconds) entanglement of two macroscopic spin

ensembles in room temperature has been achieved recently (Julsgaard, et al. 2001). Further,
NMR quantum computation in room temperature is reality (Gershenfeld & Chuang, 1997).
Our theory predicts among other things that (1) replacement of hydrogen with
deuterium will affect consciousness; (2) interference with the dynamics of neural nuclear
spin ensemble will affect consciousness; (3) perturbation of neural membrane and protein
structures and dynamics will affect consciousness; and (4) perturbation/blockage of oxygen
pathways in the neural membranes and proteins will also affect or even block consciousness.
Therefore, the effect of transcranial magnetic stimulations on awareness and consciousness
functions (See Chicurei 2002) can be explained as the stimulations interfering with neural
nuclear spin dynamics. General anesthetics causing unconsciousness can be explained as the
said anesthetics perturbing O2 pathways and neural membrane structures and dynamics (See
also Hu & Wu 2002). Further, temporary hypoxia causing unconsciousness may be explained
as deprivation of O2 activation functions.
More recently, we have also considered the possible roles of neural electron networks
in memory and consciousness (Hu & Wu, 2004d). Besides free O2 and NO, the main sources
of unpaired electron spins in neural membranes and proteins are transition metal ions and
O2 and NO bound/absorbed to large molecules, free radicals produced through biochemical
reactions and excited molecular triplet states induced by fluctuating internal magnetic fields.
We have shown that unpaired electron spin networks inside neural membranes and proteins
are also modulated by action potentials through exchange and dipolar coupling tensors and
spin-orbital coupling and g-factor tensors and perturbed by microscopically strong and
fluctuating internal magnetic fields produced largely by diffusing O2. Thus, we have argued
that these spin networks could also be involved in brain functions since said modulation
inputs information carried by the neural spike trains into them, said perturbation activates
various dynamics within them and the combination of the two likely produce stochastic
resonance thus synchronizing said dynamics to the neural firings. Although quantum
coherence is desirable, it is not required for these spin networks to serve as the
microscopic components for the classical neural networks.
On the quantum aspect, we speculate that human brain works as follows with unpaired
electron spins being the mind-pixels: Through action potential modulated electron spin
interactions and fluctuating internal magnetic field driven activations, the neural electron spin
networks inside neural membranes and proteins form various entangled quantum states
some of which survive decoherence through quantum Zeno effects or in decoherence-free
subspaces and then collapse contextually via irreversible and non-computable means
producing consciousness and, in turn, the collective spin dynamics associated with said
collapses have effects through spin chemistry on classical neural activities thus influencing
the neural networks of the brain (Hu & Wu, 2004d). Thus, according to this alternative model,
the unpaired electron spin networks are the “mind-screen,” the neural membranes and
proteins are the mind-screen and memory matrices, and diffusing O2 and NO are
pixel-activating agents. Together, they form the neural substrates of consciousness.
Finally, the principle of science dictates that a scientific theory/hypothesis should only
achieve legitimacy if it is experimentally verified. Thus, since the summer of 2004 to the
present, we have mainly focused our efforts on the quantification of our theory and the

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designs and implementations of computer simulations and experiments for the verifications
of the same. Important results shall be reported as soon as feasible.

About the Authors

Hupin Hu is the chief investigator of the spin-mediated consciousness theory. He is
currently an attorney in private practice and the Chief Scientist of Biophysics Consulting
Group. For more than six years he was also a proprietary equity trader at a Wall Street
firm. He obtained his B.S. and M.S. in China in 1983 and 1986 respectively, Ph.D. from
University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana in 1991 and J.D. from New York Law School in
1998.

Maoxin Wu is Hu’s collaborator, supporter and spouse of almost 20 years. She is currently
an assistant professor at Mount Sinai School of Medicine and Director of Fine Needle
Aspiration Services at the Department of Pathology, Mount Sinai Medical Center. She is a
board-certified pathologist and received her medical residency training at Long Island Jewish
Medical Center during 1996-1999 and was a fellow of cytopathology at said Center during
1999-2000. She received her M.D. from Shanxi Medical University, China, in 1984 and M.S.
and Ph.D. from University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana in 1990 and 1995 respectively.

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