He was born in Pingyang in Zhejiang Province in 1902. He graduated from Tohoku Imperial University in Japan in 1927 and received his Ph.D. from the University in 1931. He returned to China after his study in Japan, first served as a professor and dean at Zhejiang University (he established the well known Chen-Su School with Chen Jian'gong), and later as a professor and president and honorary president of Fudan University. He was honorary chairman of the Chinese Mathematical Society and elected to Academia Sinica and Chinese Academy of Sciences in 1948 and 1955 respectively. Together with Hua Luogeng, they were the most influential figures in mathematical society of modern China.

Praised as the "first geometer in the orient", Su was engaged in research, teaching and education in differential geometry and computational geometry. In his early years, he made excellent contributions to affine geometry and projective differential geometry. He obtained extraordinary achievements in general space differential geometry, conjugate net theory in higher dimensional space and computer aided geometry design.