Zhiqin Xu was born in August 1941 in Shanghai, China. She is a structural geologist and a professor at Nanjing University. Xu graduated from the Department of Geology and Geography at Peking University in 1964 with a Bachelor degree of in structural geology. She earned her Ph.D. in structural geology from the University of Montpellier in France in 1987. She was elected as a member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 1995 and as a fellow of the World Academy of Sciences for the Advancement of Science in Developing Countries in 2007.

Xu is one of the pioneers in integrating microstructural and macrostructural geological research in China. She has led her team in nearly 60 years of field research and study of the Tibetan Plateau and continental orogenic belts and served as one of the chief Chinese scientists for the Sino-France Joint Scientific Expedition to the Tibetan Plateau. She has identified nearly 60 large ductile shear zones and five gneiss dome groups within China's continental orogenic belts. In 1987, she was the first to report the ultrahigh-pressure mineral coesite in the Dabie orogenic belt. She has revised the deformation framework of eight significant orogenic belts in China, contributing critical evidence for the establishment of the Tethyan tectonic system in China. Xu proposed the concept of the Tibetan Plateau as an “orogenic plateau”, with its initial formation dating back to the Cretaceous period. Her studies have furthered the understanding of the Gangdese orogenic belt's transition from ocean-continent subduction to continent-continent collision. She proposed mechanisms for the dynamic shift of India-Asia collision from compression to strike-slip, developing a new three-dimensional kinematic and dynamic model of Himalayan orogenesis. She also proposed that the Songpan-Ganzi orogenic belt is a metallogenic belt highly enriched in lithium resource, with gneiss domes as significant structural reservoirs for the lithium deposit. These works have pioneered new insights into the structural genesis of pegmatite-type lithium deposits in China.

Xu has made substantial contributions to the foundation and advancement of China's continental scientific drilling. As the chief scientist, she has led China’s first 5000-meter-deep scientific drilling in the ultrahigh-pressure metamorphic belt in Donghai County, Jiangsu Province since 2001. This drilling project unveiled the deep structure of the Sulu ultrahigh-pressure metamorphic belt and introduced a double subduction-exhumation model. Following the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake, Xu led her team to conduct the world's first scientific drilling project responding to a major earthquake at the Wenchuan earthquake fault zone, which has advanced the understanding of the Wenchuan earthquake mechanisms and contributed to the reconstruction of the tectonic framework of the Longmeshan orogeny. In the recent years, her focus has been in the lithium deposit belt in western Sichuan. Since 2019, she has led a team in Nanjing University to carry out a 5000-meter scientific drilling project in the area of the Jiajika lithium deposit. Based on this project, a Museum of Continental Scientific Drilling Cores in Nanjing University has also been built.

Xu has published over 400 research papers and 14 monographs. Her book Legendary Earth: Stories Told by Stones, where she is the first author, won the 2019 National Popular Science Award. She has served as Vice President of the Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences, Director of the Institute of Geology (1993-2001), and a member of the Environment and Resources Committee of National People’s Congress. She was also the first chairperson of the Continental Crust and Mantle Research Division of the Geological Society of China. Her research team has received the State Science and Technology Progress Award (second prize), the State Natural Science Award (second prize), and two first prize awards from the Ministry of Land and Resources for scientific and technological progress. Individually, she has been honored as a National Advanced Worker, a National Model Worker, and recipient of the National May 1st Labor Medal. She has also been recognized with the Ho Leung Ho Lee Science and Technology Progress Award, the Li Siguang Geological Science Award, and the National Award for Outstanding Contributors to the Field Scientific Work.