The Lanzhou Institute of Plateau Atmospheric Physics (LIPAP),CAS has been found for fortieth anniversary.In this paper,both the history of the LIPAP and its mainly research advances in a variety of branch fields of atmospheric sciences in the last 40 years have been,briefly,reviewed.The three Institutes,our Institute,Lanzhou Institute of Glaciology and Geocryology,and Lanzhou Institute of Desert,have already been combined recently as one Institute,it may be a new starting point of ours,we may have a good future.