text: Xie was born in Beijing in 1962 with ancestral roots in Hepu County, Guangxi. He received his B.Sc. in chemistry from Peking University in 1984, and his Ph.D. in physical chemistry in 1990 from University of California at San Diego. After a brief postdoctoral appointment at University of Chicago, he joined  Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, where he rose from senior research scientist to chief scientist. In 1998, he became the first tenured professor recruited by Harvard University among Chinese scholars who came to the United States since Chinese economic reform.