Xu studied Biological Sciences and received his bachelor’s degree from Anhui Normal University. He then obtained a master’s degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Science and Technology of China. Subsequently, he moved to Stuttgart, where he worked at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems. Since November 2016, he has been an extra mœnia Ph.D. student at the department of “Intelligent materials and systems” at the HZDR under the supervision of Dr. Denys Makarov. His research is centered around the magnetically actuated soft robot and artificial micro swimmers.