Abstract: In honoring and celebrating the professional achievements of Professor Xiaoping Zhou, an internationally recognized prominent meteorologist, this short essay reviews some of his most influential works at different stages of his professional career. The selected seminal works of Professor Zhou cover a wide range of topics, from dynamics of topographic Rossby waves, cloud dynamics and modeling, to mesoscale dynamics and numerical simulations. Professor Zhou’s pioneering work not only contributed greatly to theoretical advancements in mesoscale and cloud dynamics, but also has provided guiding principles for the development and improvement of operational numerical weather predictions in China in the past 50 years. His contributions to the science will be remembered forever.