Xuan is a doctoral candidate who has won multiple international prizes. He is the recipient of the European Society of International Law’s Early-Career Scholar Prize 2025; the Lee Kuan Yew Gold Medal 2020 and Chief Justice Prize 2020 awarded by the National University of Singapore's Faculty of Law; and the American Society of Comparative Law’s Phanor J. Eder Prize (Honorable Mention) 2018. He graduated as Valedictorian and best graduating student from the National University of Singapore, Faculty of Law (L.L.B., 2020), and as a Fulbright Scholar on the Dean’s List from Georgetown University Law Center (L.L.M., 2022). 
 
Xuan's academic interest lies in the intersection between international law and international politics. Specifically, he is interested in how human lives are implicated in matters relating to hybrid warfare, armed conflict, geopolitical disputes, sovereignty, migration and nationality, law of the sea, space law, global inequality, race, feminism, and sexuality. He is currently finishing up a doctoral thesis at Adelaide Law School which examines the role national narratives play in shaping international legal behavior, using China as empirical subject. His works have been published in top international law journals including University of Pennsylvania Journal of International Law and the Berkeley Journal of International Law. He has previously clerked at the International Court of Justice as a Judicial Fellow to the President, H.E. Judge Joan E. Donoghue. He is an avid fan of poetry, pretentious movie flicks, and all things by the beach.
 
Xuan is currently a visiting scholar at New York University School of Law.