In her research, she uses scanning probe microscopy to study the nanostructure, optics, and photoelectric properties of thin films and crystal surfaces, with particular application to solar cells,[1] and has used nanotransfer printing to make electrical connections to single-molecule sensing devices.
[1] Hsu graduated from Princeton University in 1985, summa cum laude, majoring in chemical engineering with a bachelor's thesis supervised by William Happer.
[1][3] She went to Stanford University for graduate study in physics, earning a master's degree in 1987 and a Ph.D. in 1991.
[1] Her dissertation, Novel Transport Properties of Two-Dimensional Superconductors, was supervised by Aharon Kapitulnik.
[4] She moved in 2003 to Sandia National Laboratories, and in 2010 to her present position at the University of Texas at Dallas.