2002年畢業于蘭州大學資源與環境學院地質工程專業，研究生學歷，工學博士，研究館員。
曾任敦煌研究院院長，現任文化和旅游部黨組成員、故宮博物院院長。
主要從事石窟、古代壁畫和土遺址保護，文化遺產監測預警與預防性保護等方面的研究。1991年開始文物保護工作以來，主持完成全國重點文物保護單位保護維修工程60余項，承擔國家及省部級課題近20項，主持或作為主要參與人完成與美國、日本、英國、澳大利亞等國相關文化遺產保護和管理機構開展的國際合作項目10余項，發表學術論文170余篇，第一作者出版《土遺址保護關鍵技術研究》《古代壁畫規范研究》等專著6部，獲國家或省部級科技獎勵10多項，何梁何利獎科學與技術創新獎獲得者，授權技術發明專利20余件，主持完成國家及行業技術標準5項，被授予“全國優秀科技工作者”“宣傳文化系統拔尖創新人才”“甘肅省五一勞動獎章”“文化部優秀專家”“甘肅省優秀專家”“甘肅省先進工作者”等多項榮譽稱號，入選國家百千萬人才工程和甘肅省領軍人才工程。
Born in February 1967 in Shandan, Gansu Province, China, Dr. Wang Xudong graduated in 2002 from Lanzhou University's College of Earth and Environmental Sciences with a Ph.D. in Geological Engineering.
Dr. Wang has served as the Director of Dunhuang Academy. He is now a member of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism's CPC Leadership Team, and Director of the Palace Museum (at vice-ministerial level).
joined Dunhuang Academy in June 1991, serving consecutively as the academy's Deputy Director, Executive Deputy Director and Director.
Dr. Wang's work has focused primarily on the conservation of caves, ancient mural paintings and earthen sites, as well as research into monitoring and early warning systems and the preventive conservation of cultural heritage. Since 1991, when he began his career in heritage conservation, he has presided over sixty conservation projects at nationally protected key cultural heritage sites, undertaken nearly twenty national, provincial or ministerial-level projects, and presided over or participated in more than ten international cooperation projects with cultural heritage protection and management institutions in other countries such as the United States, Japan, the United Kingdom and Australia. He has published over 170 academic papers and six monographs as primary author, including Key Earthen Site Conservation Technology Research and Normative Research on Ancient Mural Paintings. He has also received over ten national, provincial or ministerial-level science and technology awards, as well as winning the Ho Leung Ho Lee Foundation's Science and Technology Innovation Award. Dr. Wang has also obtained more than twenty technical patents, and presided over the compilation of five National and Industry Technology Standards. He has been granted many titles and awards, including 'Nationwide Outstanding Scientific and Technological Worker', 'Top Innovative Talent in the Publicity and Culture System', 'Gansu Province May 1st Labor Medal', 'Excellent Ministry of Culture Expert', 'Outstanding Gansu Province Expert', and 'Gansu Province Advanced Worker'. He has also been selected as a member of the National Hundred, Thousand and Ten Thousand Talents Project as well as Gansu Province's Leading Talents Project.
