Rate My Professor Xiang Xiao

Xiang Xiao is a Distinguished Professor at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, where he has held his position since 2009. He previously served as Professor at the Third Institute of Oceanography, Ministry of Natural Resources, China, from 2001 to 2008. His academic background includes a bachelor's degree from Huazhong Agricultural University in 1990, a PhD from the same institution in 1998, and postdoctoral research at Osnabrueck University in Germany from 1999 to 2001.

His research focuses on deep-sea microbiology, including the simulation of extreme environments in the deep sea, environmental adaptation mechanisms of deep-sea extremophiles, and microbial oceanography. He is recognized as a National Distinguished Young Scholar. Key publications include recent works such as “MEER: Extraordinary flourishing ecosystem in the deepest ocean” in Cell (2025), “Microbial ecosystems and ecological driving forces in the deepest ocean sediments” in Cell (2025), and multiple articles in Nature Communications and other leading journals on topics including archaeal metabolism, piezophilic bacteria, and deep-sea viral diversity.