While working for the University of Chicago Medical Center in 1955, he developed a particle accelerator used to treat cancerous tumors.

Later that year, Xie returned to China and helped build the country's first particle accelerator.

[1] Xie went on to become the project director during design, development and construction of the Beijing Electron Positron Collider (BEPC), which was most notably used in precision measurement of the τ lepton.

[1][2] He received the State Preeminent Science and Technology Award for his work in 2011.

[3] The inner main-belt asteroid 32928 Xiejialin, discovered by SCAP at the Xinglong Station in 1995, is named in his honor.