The college of atmospheric sciences of Lanzhou University was originally established as a meteorology teaching and research group in 1958. In 1971, the meteorology speciality was formally founded and academician Chou Jifan served as director of teaching and research section. In 1987, the Department of Atmospheric Sciences was established in Lanzhou University. Academician Chou Jifan was the first director. Professor Wang Shigong and Professor Zhang Lei were the second and the third directors respectively. In June 2004, according to the needs of national meteorological development personnel training, the first college of atmospheric sciences in China was founded at Lanzhou University to promote the rapid development of atmospheric science in school. Academician Chou JiFan served as the honorary dean, and professor Huan Jianping served as the first dean, which opened a new page in the history of the college of atmospheric sciences of Lanzhou University.

       Lanzhou University's Atmospheric Science Subject has the right to grant doctoral degree in the First-Level Discipline of atmospheric science approved by the Academic Degree Committee of the State Council. It consists of three doctoral points of second-level discipline in meteorology, atmospheric physics and atmospheric environment and climatology, and four master's points of second-level discipline in meteorology, atmospheric physics and atmospheric environment, Applied Meteorology and climatology. At present, there is one post-doctoral research mobile station of atmospheric science, one national key cultivation discipline of Atmospheric Physics and atmospheric environment, one first-level key discipline of Gansu Province, one special specialty construction point of national university of atmospheric science, and one scientific research and talent training base of provincial and ministerial departments of atmospheric science. The College has one key laboratory of the Ministry of Education, four institutes and three centers, namely, the Key Laboratory of the Ministry of Education on Semi-arid Climate Change, the Institute of Meteorology, the Institute of Atmospheric Physics and Atmospheric Environment, the Institute of Environmental Change, the Institute of Atmospheric Remote Sensing, the Center for Environmental Quality Assessment of Lanzhou University, the Teaching and Experimental Center, and the Provincial Experimental Teaching Center of atmospheric science.

       There are 77 faculty members in the college, of whom 54 are teaching and scientific research personnel. There are 19 professors, 21 associate professors (11 doctoral supervisors, 24 master supervisors), 14 lecturers, 2 professor-level senior engineers, 3 senior engineers and 6 engineers. There is one academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, two winners of the National Outstanding Youth Fund, one specially appointed professor of the Yangtze River Scholars, one winner of the Ministry of Education's Young Teachers' Award for Colleges and Universities, two winners of the National Outstanding Youth Fund, two New Century Excellent Talents of the Ministry of Education, one member of the subject evaluation group of the Academic Degree Committee of the State Council, one deputy director of the Teaching Guidance Committee of atmospheric science of the Ministry of Education, three leading talents in Gansu Province, two leaders of cross-century disciplines of Gansu Province, two famous teachers of Gansu Province, one National Atmospheric Science Teaching team, one innovation team of the Ministry of Education, one Huang Danian-style teacher team, and more than 30 part-time professors (including six academicians of the two academies).

       The college has hired many well-known scholars at home and abroad to serve as the “Chair professor of Cuiying Lanzhou University” and part-time professors. Some famous scholars have come to our college to conduct cutting-edge academic lectures, including Academician Fu Congbin, Academician Xu Jianmin, Academician Wu Guoxiong, Academician Chao Jiping, Academician Lu Daren, Academician Huang Ronghui, Academician Shi Guangyu, Academician Chen Lianshou, Academician Zeng Qingcun, Academician Ding Yihui, Academician Wu Rongsheng, Academician Li Chongyin, Academician Mu Mu, Academician Wang Huijun, Academician Zhang Renhe, etc. These experts have made important contributions to the overall development of the discipline level of the School of Atmospheric Sciences.

       The main scientific research directions of our college are: climate dynamics and climate prediction, semi-arid climate change, atmospheric dynamics simulation, atmospheric remote sensing and data assimilation, arid climate and disaster meteorology, environmental assessment and pollution prevention, atmospheric diffusion, atmospheric gas Sol and climate, environmental weather forecasting, global change and land surface processes, medical meteorology, etc. Our college has successively presided over one national major scientific research project, six national 973 projects, two National Natural Science Foundation Outstanding Youth Fund projects, four key projects, one overseas youth cooperation fund, and the Zhongtai (NSFC-TRF) International cooperation project, two national science and technology support plan projects, one national military science and technology support plan project, and more than twenty projects of the National Natural Science Foundation. In recent years, our college has published more than 500 papers, more than 10 textbooks and monographs, and won more than 30 awards such as the National Natural Science Award, etc.

       With the strong support of the Ministry of Education and Lanzhou university, our college has received about 38 million yuan of funding support, which comes from the '211 Project' construction funds, '985 Project' platform construction funds, teaching and experimental equipment fees, etc. A semi-arid climate and environmental observatory with international advanced level has been built, which has a series of internationally advanced observation and experimental instruments, such as Ka-band cloud radar observation system, micro-pulse laser radar, microwave radiometer, boundary layer gradient observation system, radiation observation system, aerosol observation system, and atmospheric composition observation system, etc. In 2013, the IBM Flex System cluster system (1344 CPUs) was built. At present, the college has 6,500 square meters of professional laboratories and research houses, 200,000 square meters of field observation stations, and 10 thousand square meters of meteorological observation sites.

       The college has extensive academic exchanges and international cooperation. It has carried out large-scale field observation experiments with international counterparts, implemented Sino-US joint observation experiments on sandstorms, cooperative observations in arid and semi-arid regions in northern China, sandstorm observation experiments in Minqin County, and black carbon aerosol observation experiments in northern areas. These experiments had attracted extensive attention at home and abroad. The college of Atmospheric Sciences has hosted several international conferences, including the International Conference on Semi-Arid Regional Climate Research, the 2nd International Conference on Arid Climate with the China Meteorological Administration, the 5th and 12th International Workshop on Climate Systems and Climate Change, and the 3th International Conference on Arid Climate, the 9th International Conference on Climate and Environment in East Asia, and the 2nd International Conference on Atmospheric Light Scattering and Remote Sensing. At the same time, the college cooperated actively with the University of Washington, Utah State University, the University of Maryland, NCAR, CIMMS, CAPS and other research institutions and Service centers, the University of Tokyo, Fushan University, the University of Reading, the University of Leeds, ICTP in Italy and other universities. We established a friendly cooperative relationship and jointly carried out personnel training and scientific researches. In recent years, we have sent more than 30 people to study abroad, and invited more than 100 famous experts and scholars from internationally renowned meteorologists to lecture at the college. The level of internationalization has been greatly improved.

       The college recruits nearly 200 undergraduates each year, including 40 students in the atmospheric science talent training and scientific research base, 100 national defense students, and 40 ordinary students for one class. There are two undergraduate majors, namely atmospheric science and applied meteorology. The college currently has more than 100 graduate students, including more than 30 doctoral students and more than 70 master students. The undergraduate employment rate and postgraduate rate have always been among the highest in the school, among them, the undergraduate employment rate is higher than 95% for three consecutive years, ranking the first ranks of the whole school. The postgraduate rate is over 40%. In recent years, students have achieved outstanding results in various activities and competitions inside and outside the school. Many undergraduate research participation projects have won the Silver Award of “Campus Invention and Innovation” at the China Patent Annual Conference, the World University Mathematical Modeling Contest and the National The mathematics modeling competition for college students, the 'World First Prize', 'National First Prize', the second prize of the National College Student Challenge Cup, the first prize of the Gansu Provincial College Student Challenge Cup and many other honors. Our students have also achieved remarkable results in the school sports meeting and have maintained many records so far.

       The college attaches great importance to cooperate with China Meteorological Administration (CMA). Since 20 September, 2009, China Meteorological Administration and Lanzhou University have official signed the cooperative agreement. The college and the administration have carried out a comprehensive cooperation. In 2003, the college co-established the 'Atmospheric Science Research and Talent Training Base' with the China Meteorological Administration and signed an agreement with National Climate Center about “Co-establish the first-level doctoral disciplines of the atmospheric science in Lanzhou university”. In addition, the college co-established the “the key laboratory of arid climate change and disaster reduction in Gansu” with Institute of Arid Meteorology, CMA, Lanzhou and Cold and Arid Regions Environmental and Engineering Research Institute，and Chinese Academy of Sciences. At the same time, the college established the great cooperative relations with the Meteorological Administration of Ningxia, Inner Mongolia, Shanxi, Qinghai, Xinjiang, Liaoning and other administrations.

       The college had organized 23 postgraduate courses together with the China Meteorological Administration Training Center (now China Meteorological Administration Cadres Training Institute) and the relevant provincial and regional meteorological administrations. A total of 1078 people from the National Meteorological Administration, the Civil Aviation System and the military attended the Master's degree program. Since 2014, the college has successively held six ”3+1” weather forecaster training courses in cooperation with the meteorological administrations of 10 provinces and the autonomous regional including Inner Mongolia, Ningxia, Qinghai, Xinjiang, Shaanxi, Liaoning, Jilin, Henan, Tibet, Gansu with 398 participants. From March 2004 to January 2008, being entrusted by the Personal Department of China Meteorological Administration, the college held eight “Basic meteorological knowledge training courses of Lanzhou University “with 397 trainees and 58 outstanding trainees.

       Since the establish of the college, it has produced a number of influential original achievements around national and local major needs and crucial scientific issues. The ability of social service has been greatly improved, and the capacity of technological innovation has been significantly enhanced too. The funding for scientific research had increased from 2.3 million Yuan in 2004 to more than 20 million Yuan, and academic papers and research achievements have been increasing year by year. We established the first semi-arid climate and environmental observation station with international standards in northwest China, and the station had carried out many large comprehensive field observation experiments in the source area of sand and dust. Therefore, we obtain a series of innovative research achievement, which strongly promoted the development of climate observation research in China. While aiming at the forefront of discipline development and national major scientific issues that needed to resolve urgently, we should strive to do well in applied scientific research related to local economic construction, disaster prevention and mitigation, and environmental protection. And in view of environmental impact assessment and the planning, post-disaster reconstruction, the scientific and technological achievements have been transformed, which has made outstanding contributions to local economic construction.

       Ten years of construction made brilliant achievements. In 2004, the college was approved to set up a post-doctoral research station for atmospheric science. In 2005, it established the “Semi-arid Climate and Environment Observatory of Lanzhou University”, and was approved to join the international CEOP project in the same year. In 2006, the college undertook the National 973 Project and the National Natural Science Foundation of China. In 2007, the second discipline of atmospheric physics and atmospheric environment was approved as the national key (cultivation) discipline, and Professor Huang Jianping won the National Outstanding Youth Fund. In 2008, it was approved to establish the key laboratory of the Ministry of Education for Semi-Arid Climate Change. What's more, Professor Zhang Wenyu gave a lecture on atmospheric probing and won the national quality course. Dr. Ren Hongli won the “100 Outstanding Doctoral Dissertations of the Country”. In 2009, the Experimental Teaching and Demonstration Center of Atmospheric Sciences was approved as a provincial experimental teaching demonstration center successfully. In 2010, the atmospheric science professional teaching team was granted as the national level team, and the students who was instructed won the World University Mathematical Modeling Contest and the National Undergraduate Mathematical Modeling Contest. In 2011, the college was selected as the innovation team of the Ministry of Education and approved the National Major Scientific Research Project. In 2012, it was approved by the National Foreign Experts Bureau, 111 as a “Semi-Arid Climate Change Innovation and Introduction Base”, and Professor Tian Wenshou was awarded the National Outstanding Youth Fund. In 2013, Professor Huang Jianping led his team to win the National Natural Science Award. In 2014, two national key fund projects were approved. In 2015, it was approved by the National Fund Committee Innovation Group. A paper published in 2016 with the title of 'Nature Climate Change' was on the cover. In 2017, it was selected into the list of national first-class disciplines. In 2018, it was approved as a team of Huang Danian teachers.

       Based on the development strategy of the northwest, the college implements the talented training model of the northwestern region through the creation of a progressive and faculty team, promoting the discipline advantages, paying attention to the cooperation between the bureau and the school, military cooperation, and international cooperation. And the college adheres to the strategic development model of building a research university atmospheric science teaching system and finally realize the rise of scientific research in the desert. Now, it has become an important part of the talented training base, the high-level scientific research base and national atmospheric science innovation system with a complete system in higher education institutions in western China.

       Ten years of grinding, cast brilliant; standing in the desert to pursue dreams. All the faculties pull together to create glory. We sincerely thank all friends for your support and help in the construction and development of the College of Atmospheric Sciences, and we will strive to build the college into a first-class, internationally renowned research institute.