Zhi Xu obtained his Ph.D. from the Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences in spring 2008, and then remained at the institute for work. In 2006, he conducted collaborative research at Stanford University in the United States. From 2008 to 2010, he visited the National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS) in Japan for collaborative research. In 2019, he joined the Songshan Lake Materials Laboratory as the leader of the Precision Instrument R&D team. In 2025, he joined the Tsientang Institute for Advanced Study as the Director of the Laboratory of Precision Instrument and Equipment.

Zhi Xu has extensive experience in the research and development of material microstructure characterization and material physical property measurement instruments, as well as in instrument development projects and industrialization of instrument technologies. He independently led the completion of multiple sets of equipment, including a 9T low-temperature strong magnetic field physical property measurement system and an in-situ liquid nitrogen temperature photoelectric combined measurement system for transmission electron microscopes. He led his team in the development and industrialization of China's first desktop scanning electron microscope, first step profiler, and fully domestically produced electron beam lithography system.

In 2015, as a co-principal investigator, he undertook the National Major Scientific Research Equipment Development Project "Development of Ultra-High Time-Space Resolution In-Situ Multi-Scale Quantum Measurement System". In 2020, as the principal investigator, he took charge of the Key Project of the National Major Scientific Instrument Development Program of the Ministry of Science and Technology, "Development of Low-Temperature Strong Magnetic Field Comprehensive Physical Property Measuring Instrument". As a key researcher, he has also undertaken 5 provincial and ministerial-level instrument development projects.

In terms of academic achievements, he has published more than 70 research papers in high-impact journals such as Nature, Advanced Materials, Journal of the American Chemical Society, and Nano Letters, with over 5,000 citations. He holds four invention patents in scientific instruments, all of which have been commercialized, and the cumulative order amount of related products has exceeded RMB 100 million.