Xilu completed her PhD in astronomy in 2018 at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where she was advised by Prof. Brian D. Fields. She got B.S. degree in physics from Wuhan University, China in 2011.

Xilu joined N3AS in 2018, spending two years at the University of Notre Dame working with Rebecca Surman, then joining UCSD. Early in 2021, Xilu joined the Institute of High Energy Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, as an Associate Professor.

Xilu’s research interests include nuclear astrophysics, astroparticle physics and high energy astrophysics. She has worked on the gamma ray emissions from starburst galaxies and Type Ia supernovae. Her current research is focused on the r-process nuclei ejected from neutron star mergers.