Shaoqing Zhang has been engaged in Earth system modeling, data assimilation and predictability studies since he graduated from Nanjing University in 1985. He received his Ph.D. degree from Florida State University in 2000, and completed his Postdoctoral Research at Princeton University in 2001. Then he served as a research scientist/US-Federal Meteorologist at the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory of National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (GFDL/NOAA) until 2016. Since then, he has been a Distinguished Professor and Outstanding Scientist at Ocean University of China. Due to his important contributions to national numerical weather and climate prediction systems in China and US, he received the China Meteorological Administration Science and Technology Advancement First-Class Award (1994), the NOAA Outstanding Research Paper Award (2008) and US Department of Commerce Golden Medal Award (2014). Together with other achievements, he was selected as the youngest NWP Fellow of Chinese Meteorological Society in 1995. He has 140+ scientific papers published and a dozen of patents granted, serving as the Lead Editors of special issues and Editorial Board members of many professional journals. He has made outstanding contributions in the fields of Earth system modeling, coupled model data assimilation and detection of predictability sources of extreme atmosphere and ocean phenomena.