Shu Gao was educated in Nanjing University and the University of Southampton, UK, for M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees, respectively. His research career includes the positions at the Second Institute of Oceanography (SOA), the Southampton Oceanography Centre (UK), the Institute of Oceanology (Chinese Academy of Sciences), Nanjing University, and East China Normal University.

His research interests include sediment transport and accumulation in shallow seas, evolution of coastal and shelf geomorphology, land-ocean interaction in the coastal zone, formation and evolution of Holocene sedimentary systems, water and sediment exchange in estuarine and coastal embayment, shallow marine material cycling, marine resources development and environmental management, and coastal engineering and environmental impact assessment. Since 1985 he has completed more than 400 publications in academic journal and book contributions, in the fields of marine sedimentary geology and environmental dynamics.

He works as a professor in marine geology at Nanjing University and a visiting professor of the East China Normal University, and is currently an Editor-in-Chief of Marine Geology (Elsevier) and the founding Editor-in-Chief of Anthropocene Coasts (East China Normal University and Springer).