GU Binglin studied in the Department of Engineering Physics of Tsinghua University from 1965 to 1970. After graduation, he worked as a teacher and pursued postgraduate studies at the same university until 1979. In that year, he was dispatched to Aarhus University of Denmark for further studies in physics, and received his Doctoral Degree in Natural Sciences there in 1982.

GU Binglin has long been engaged in the research field of condensed matter physics and has published more than 300 papers. He was elected as a member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 1999 and a foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences in 2010. He has been awarded Honorary Doctorates by WasedaUniversity, the St. Petersburg University of Finance, the Loughborough University, the Lyon Central University of Technology, and received an Honorary Professorship from Aarhus University.

He is now also a member of the State Council Academic Degree Committee and National Science and Technology Award Committee, the president of the Chinese Society of Micro-nano Technology, the president of Beijing Association for Science and Technology and the vice chairman of All-China Environment Federation.

Prof. Gu has won several major awards including a Second-class Prize of China's National Natural Science Award and the Advancement of Science and Technology Award sponsored by Hong Kong Ho Leung Ho Lee Foundation.