Hu Yuxian, male, Han nationality, is a native of Wuchang, Hubei Province. He graduated from Shanghai Jiaotong University. Hu obtained a doctoral degree from University of Michigan in the USA.

Hu acted as researcher at the Geophysical Research Institute of the China National Seismic Bureau. He has been committed to the combination between seismology and engineering science, and initiated engineering seismology in China. Since the early 1960s, he has been known for studying the effect of field conditions on earthquakes and damage. His primary conclusions have been applied to the earthquake resistance norms of China. He has put forward comprehensive probability methods for seismic fatalness analysis in the 1980s, combining international general probability methods with the advanced seismic forecast method. These methods have been adopted by the latest seismic block plan of China. His method of designing earth vibration from intensity, distance or earthquake magnitude for regions lacking records has been widely adopted in the earthquake resistance plan of China. Hu advanced the application of random vibration theory to earthquake engineering and conducted the research on urban seismic hazard forecast and earthquake prevention and mitigation in the 1990s.

Hu Yuxian was elected academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 1991.