She received her bachelor's degree in chemistry from Yale University in 1990 and her Ph.D. degree in chemistry from the University of California at Berkeley, where she was an NSF predoctoral fellow in the laboratory of Professor Peter G. Schultz. In 1996, she moved to Rockefeller University to study neurobiology with Professor and Nobel Laureate Paul Greengard as a Damon Runyon-Walter Winchell postdoctoral fellow. Prof. Hsieh-Wilson joined the faculty at the California Institute of Technology in 2000. Her honors include a Beckman Young Investigator Award (2000), Research Corporation Research Innovation Award (2000), Alfred P. Sloan Fellowship (2003), Eli Lilly Award in Biological Chemistry (2006), Arthur C. Cope Scholar Award (2008), and Gill Young Investigator Award in Neuroscience (2009).