Sept 2020-until now, Institute of Urban Environment, CAS, Professor Leader of Urban Soil Ecology Group 

2016–2020, J.F. Blumenbach Institute of Zoology and Anthropology, University of Gottingen, Alexander von Humboldt Fellow Host: Prof. Stefan Scheu, head of the section Animal Ecology

 2015-2016, Environment and Sustainability Institute (ESI), University of Exeter Host: Prof. Kevin J. Gaston, director of ESI

2011-2019, Northeast Institute of Geography and Agroecology, Associate Professor and Assistant Professor

2014-2016, Jilin Agricultural University, Postdoc Host: Prof. Yu Li (Academician of Chinese Academy of Engineering) 

2006-2011, Nanjing University, Ph.D. candidate Zoology Supervisor: Prof. Jian-xiu Chen 

2009-2010, Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle, Paris, Joint Ph.D. student (Fellowship from China Scholarship Council), Zoology Supervisor: Dr. Deharveng Louis

 Short-time visit:

2012.08, 2014.08, 2016.12, 2017.07 and 2018.01 in Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle, Paris 2015.10, 2017.01, 2018.02, 2019.10 in Institute of Systematics and Evolution of Animals, Polish Academy of Sciences

1. Xin Sun*, Craig Liddicoat, Alexei Tiunov, Bin Wang, Yiyue Zhang, Changyi Lu, Zhipeng Li, Stefan Scheu, Martin F. Breed*, Stefan Geisen*, Yong-Guan Zhu. Harnessing soil biodiversity to promote human health in cities. npj Urban Sustainability, 2023, 3: 5.
2. Xin Gong#, Xin Sun#*，Madhav P. Thakur, Zhihong Qiao, Haifeng Yao, Manqiang Liu, Stefan Scheu, Yong-Guan Zhu*. Climate and edaphic factors drive soil nematode diversity and community composition in urban ecosystems. Soil Biology and Biochemistry, 2023, 180: 109010.
3. Zhihong Qiao#, Bin Wang#, Haifeng Yao, Zhipeng, Li, Stefan Scheu, Yong-Guan Zhu, Xin Sun*. Urbanization and greenspace type as determinants of species and functional composition of collembolan communities. Geoderma, 2022, 428: 116175.
4. Alain Isabwe#, Haifeng Yao#, Shixiu Zhang, Yuji Jiang, Martin F. Breed, Xin Sun*. Spatial assortment of soil organisms supports the size-plasticity hypothesis. ISME Communications, 2022, https://doi.org/10.1038/s43705-022-00185-6.
5. Zhijing Xie#, Ting-Wen Chen#, Mikhail Potapov, Feng Zhang, Donghui Wu*, Stefan Scheu, Xin Sun*. Ecological and evolutionary processes shape belowground springtail communities along an elevational gradient. Journal of Biogeography, 2022, 49: 469–482.
6. Xin Sun, Yinhuan Ding, Michael C. Orr, Feng Zhang*. Streamlining universal single-copy ortholog and ultraconserved element design: a case study in Collembola. Molecular Ecology Resources, 2020, 49: 469–482.
7. Xin Sun*, Franca Marian, Christian Bluhm, Mark Maraun, Stefan Scheu. Response of Collembola to the addition of nutrients along an altitudinal gradient of tropical montane rainforests. Applied Soil Ecology, 2020, 147: 103382.

Multi-scale Collembola diversity in the temperate forests of the East Asia: Changbai Mountains (China) and Sikhote-Alin Range (Russia); Source of funding: the National Natural Science Foundation of China and the Russian Foundation for Basic Research; period: 2018-2019; person in charge

Altitudinal diversity pattern and its underlying mechanisms of Onychiuridae (Collembola) in the Changbai Mountains; Source of funding: the National Natural Science Foundation of China; period: 2016-2019; person in charge

Soil animal biodiversity maintenance, protection and its ecological service function under long-term cultivation influence in black soil farmland of Northeast China; Source of funding: the National Natural Science Foundation of China; period: 2015-2019; principal member

Taxonomy of Collembola and the biological characteristics of the dominant species on edible fungi in China; Source of funding: the Postdoctoral Science Foundation of China; period: 2015-2016; person in charge

Systematics of the Family Onychiuridae from China (Collembola: Poduromorpha); Source of funding: the National Natural Science Foundation of China; period: 2014-2016; person in charge

Taxonomy and biodiversity of Collembola in Northeast China; Source of funding: Chinese Academy of Sciences; period: 2013-2017; person in charge