Xingwei Zhou was born in Shanghai in February 1939. He graduated from the Mathematics Department of Nankai University in 1962, and went to University of California, Berkeley on a government sponsorship for further study in 1980-1981, then he was teaching at the University of Cincinnati from 1990 to 1991. He was the assistant director of Nankai Institute of Mathematics (renamed as Chern Institute of Mathematics since 2005) in 1985-1992, vice director of the Institute in 1992-1996, and the director of the Institute from April 1996 to January 2004.

Professor Xingwei Zhou is mainly engaged in teaching and research of function theory and the theory of harmonic analysis and its application. He has compiled two textbooks and published more than 70 articles in leading Chinese and international academic journals. Among his many masters and Ph.D students, two Ph.D students received the honor of Tianjin Excellent Doctoral Dissertation Award, and one was awarded as the Distinguished Young Scholar of the National Natural Science Foundation.

Professor Xingwei Zhou was awarded the First Prize of Tianjin Natural Science Award by Tianjin Municipal Government in 2009, the First Prize of National Teaching Achievement Award in 2001, the Second Prize of National Award for Science and Technology Progress by Ministry of Education in 1986 and 1990, the first Wu Daren - Xiong Zhixing Mathematics Teaching Award in 2002, and the special government allowance since  1992.