Dr. Xia is the James M. McKelvey Professor for Advanced Materials in Department of Biomedical Engineering, with joint appointments in Department of Energy, Environmental, and Chemical Engineering; Department of Chemistry; Department of Radiology, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics; and Division of Biological and Biomedical Sciences (DBBS) at Washington University.

Dr. Xia received his Ph.D. degree in physical chemistry from Harvard University (with Professor George M. Whitesides) in 1996, his M.S. degree in inorganic chemistry from University of Pennsylvania (with the late Professor Alan G. MacDiarmid) in 1993, and his B.S. degree in chemical physics from the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) in 1987.  He came to the United States in 1991.

Dr. Xia has received a number of prestigious awards, including the 2009 MRS Fellow, 2006 NIH Director's Pioneer Award (NDPA), Leo Hendrik Baekeland Award (2005), Camille Dreyfus Teacher Scholar (2002), David and Lucile Packard Fellow in Science & Engineering (2000), Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellow (2000), NSF Early Career Development Award (2000), ACS Victor K. LaMer Award (1999), and Camille and Henry Dreyfus New Faculty Award (1997).

Dr. Xia is an Associate Editor of Nano Letters and serves on the Advisory Boards of Accounts of Chemical Research (2010-), Journal of Biomedical Optics (2010-), Chemistry: An Asian Journal (2010-), Cancer Nanotechnology (2010-), Nano Research (2009-), Science of Advanced Materials (2009-), Nano Today (2006-),  Langmuir (2005-), Chemistry of Materials (2005-2007), International Journal of Nanoscience (2004-), International Journal of Nanotechnology (2004-), and Advanced Functional Materials (2001-).  He has also served as a Guest Editor of special issues for Advanced Materials six times and MRS Bulletin one time.