Dr Xu Zhang reviced MSc degrees from the University of Waterloo in Hydrology (2012) and the University of California at San Diego in Oceanography (2013). He obtained his PhD degree from the Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris in geochemistry (2018). From 2019 to 2021, he worked as a postdoc researcher in centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS) at the Univerity of Strasrbourg. From 2022, he started working as a postdoc researcher in the petrology group at Utrecht University.

For his reseaerch, Xu and his peer colleagues study the Earth's surface processes from the past to present. A particular focus is the use of geochemical tools including non-traditional isotopes and geochemistry to understand subjects associated with rock-waterinteractions : weathering, river sediments, lake sedimentary column, reverse weathering, soils, critical zone, and etc. A comprehensive examination of these questions would help our society to better understand global carbon cycle and to navigate future sustanable development.

At UU, Xu and his colleauges, primarly Dr. Helen King and Dr. Oliver Plümper, interrogate the association between fluid chemistry and mineral activities, explore fondemental principles of isotope geochemistry, and develop tools can be applied for clean energies.