Xiao (Matthew) HU is a professor at the School of Materials Science and Engineering (MSE) in Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in Singapore. He is the Director of the Environmental Chemistry and Materials Centre (ECMC) at Nanyang Environment and Water Research Institute (NEWRI) in NTU, and the Co-Director of the recently established RGE-NTU Sustainable Textile Research Centre (SusTex).

He gained his BEng from the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering of Tsinghua University, and MSc and PhD from the University of Manchester. He joined NTU in April 1992 as one of the founding faculty members of its Materials Engineering programme. He later served as the inaugural Head of Division of Materials Technology upon the establishment of the School of Materials Science and Engineering, and as its Director of Graduate Programmes.

His main research interests are in functional and performance polymers, multi-functional nano-hybrids and nanocomposites. His group pursues studies on the underlying scientific and engineering principles for new materials design, synthesis, and processing and fabrication for targeted end uses. He has contributed to more than 380 international journal papers and delivered a number of invited, keynote and plenary presentations. He holds more than 20 IP inventions in materials, environment and water technologies, several of which have been licensed or commercialised.

His latest passion is on tackling emerging and perennial challenges concerning sustainability, materials circularity, and environmental health using enabling knowledge of chemical and materials science.