Dr. Hongjie Xu received his Bachelor degree in physics from Fudan University in 1982, and Ph.D. in physics from Fudan University in 1989. He has been a professor in Shanghai Institute of Applied Physics (SINAP), CAS since 1994. He served as the deputy director and later the director of SINAP from 1995 to 2009.

During his tenure as the director of SINAP and SSRF, he led the initiation, design, construction and commission of the Shanghai Synchrotron Radiation Facility (SSRF) or better known as the “Shanghai Light Source”, which was the first “third generation” light source built in China. Now he is still serve as the chief scientist of SSRF and president of Asia-Oceania Forum for Synchrotron Radiation Research.

He is currently serving as the director of the CAS TMSR Center for Excellence overseeing the R&D efforts of both solid fuel and liquid fuel molten salt reactors. Thorium Molten Salt Reactor nuclear energy system (TMSR) program launched in 2011, which intends to develop  a series of MSRs, realize closed Th-U fuel cycle, as well as hybrid  utilization of nuclear energy.