Zhou Tongqing was a physicist. He was a native of Kunshan, Jiangsu Province. Zhou was a member of the China Democratic League. He graduated from the Department of Physics of Tsinghua University in 1929. In 1933, he received his doctorate degree from Princeton University, and returned to China in the same year. Zhou served as a professor in the Department of Physics of Peking University and a professor and dean of the Department of Physics of National Central University (now Nanjing University). He also worked as a professor and dean of the Department of Physics of Shanghai Jiaotong University as well as the director of the College of Science of the University. The year 1952 saw his transfer to the Department of Physics of Fudan University. He was then the chairman of the Shanghai Physical Society, a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, a member of the Standing Committee of the Shanghai Municipal Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, and a representative of the National People’s Congress. Zhou was a pioneer of spectroscopic studies in China. He mainly engaged in such research fields as spectroscopy, gas-discharge spectroscopy, and gas-discharge plasma physics, etc. In the 1930s, he developed a new low-voltage arc light source, and focused on the studies of the inverse Stark effect of atomic spectral lines such as Rb and Cs, molecular spectra and molecular structures. The 1940s witnessed Zhou’s achievements in exploring physical approaches for measuring watercourse depths, and inventing instruments to measure water depths and locations of hidden reefs. Since the 1950s, he contributed significantly to the cooperative research and development of high vacuum tubes, X-ray tubes and high-voltage rectifier tubes, etc. He also initiated and studied closely the three-dimensional discharge plasma spectrum. Zhou co-authored the book Controlled Thermonuclear Reactions and co-translated Atomic Physics. In 1955, he was elected as an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (Member of the CAS).