Xu Zhang is a Professor and Doctoral Supervisor at the School of Mechanics and Aerospace Engineering, Southwest Jiaotong University. He is recognized as a National-level High-level Young Talent, a Humboldt Research Fellow, and a recipient of the International Journal of Plasticity Young Researcher Award (2024). He earned his B.Eng. and Ph.D. in Mechanics from Huazhong University of Science and Technology. His academic visits, supported by the European Research Council, Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, German Research Foundation, and China Scholarship Council, have taken him to institutions including Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (Greece), Max Planck Institute for Iron Research (Germany), Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (Germany), and Nanyang Technological University (Singapore).

    His research focuses on the multi-scale mechanics of advanced metallic materials. By integrating theoretical analysis, constitutive modeling, numerical simulation, mechanical testing, microstructural characterization, and data science with machine learning, he investigates the mechanisms of material deformation, fatigue, and fracture. His work aims to establish advanced constitutive models, guide the microstructure-based design of materials, and support the service safety assessment of key components in aerospace and rail transportation. He has led five projects funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China and participated in two NSFC Major Research Programs, one National Key R&D Program, and one Taihang National Laboratory project.

    Professor Zhang has published 126 SCI-indexed papers, which have been cited over 2,500 times, resulting in an H-index of 30. His publications include two ESI Highly Cited Papers, one cover-featured article in Acta Mechanica Sinica, one Feature Article in the Journal of Materials Research, and one "Editor's Choice" paper in Computational Materials Science. He is also included in the World's Top 2% Scientists. He has co-authored three Chinese monographs such as Macro-Meso Inelastic Constitutive Relations of Materials and Machine Learning in the Analysis of Solid Deformation, Fatigue, and Fracture, as well as the digital textbook Experiments, Theory and Simulation in Mechanics of Materials. His research has been recognized with several awards, including the International Journal of Plasticity Young Researcher Award (2024), the Second Prize of the Natural Science Award from the Chinese Society of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics (2025), and the First Sichuan-Chongqing Outstanding Paper Award (2020).

    He actively serves the academic community as a member of the Micro/Nano Mechanics Working Group and the Professional Group on Plasticity within the Chinese Society of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics. He also serves on the Young Editorial Boards of Materials Research Letters, Acta Mechanica Solida Sinica, Acta Metallurgica Sinica, and the Chinese Journal of Applied Mechanics. Over the past five years, he has served as a conference co-chair once, presided over more than 20 academic sessions, and delivered over 60 plenary, keynote, or invited talks.