Professor Christopher Cullen, Emeritus Director
Christopher Cullen originally trained as an engineer, and holds an MA from Oxford in Engineering Science (BA 1967). He has a PhD in Classical Chinese from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London (1977). He was a Stipendiary Research Fellow of Clare Hall, Cambridge, from 1977 to 1981. He served as Director of the Needham Research Institute, Cambridge (NRI) from 2003 to 2014, after spending more than a decade as Senior Lecturer in the History of Chinese Science and Medicine in the Department of History at SOAS, while also serving part-time as Deputy Director of the NRI from 1992. He is now Emeritus Director of the NRI. He is an Associate of the unit ‘Chine, Corée, Japon’, UMR 8173 (CNRS, EHESS, & Université Paris-Cité), France, and Director of the Research Centre for the Transcultural Transmission of Science and Technology, and Silk Road Civilisation, University of Science and Technology, Hefei.
He is Emeritus Honorary Professor of the History of East Asian Science, Technology and Medicine in the University of Cambridge, and is an Emeritus Fellow of Darwin College, Cambridge, where he was elected Fellow in 2005, and served as Praelector from 2008 – 2015. In 2005, he was elected as a member of the International Academy of the History of Science. He served the International Society for the History of East Asian Science, Technology and Medicine as its founding Secretary (1990-1993), President (2005-2008), and Treasurer (2008-2011).
From 1992 to 2014, he served as General Editor of the Science and Civilisation in China series, founded by Joseph Needham and published by Cambridge University Press; ten volumes of the series appeared under his editorship. He is editor of the Needham Research Institute Monograph Series, published by Routledge Curzon. As of November 2023, fifteen volumes have been published in this series.
He has published widely over the past fifty years, mainly in the fields of the history of astronomy, mathematics and medicine in China. Download a complete list of publications here.
Monographs as author
2023: The letter of Gabriel de Magalhães 2 January 1669: an edition and annotated translation. Cambridge, Needham Research Institute Working Papers no. 4. https://www.nri.org.uk/Cullen%20Magalhaes%20complete%20book%203-02-2023.pdf
2017: Heavenly Numbers: Astronomy and Authority in Early Imperial China. Oxford, Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198733119.001.0001
2017: The Foundations of Celestial Reckoning: Three Ancient Chinese Astronomical Systems. London, Routledge. https://www.routledge.com/The-Foundations-of-Celestial-Reckoning-Three-Ancient-Chinese-Astronomical/Cullen/p/book/9780367874490
2004: The Suàn shù shū (筭數書) ‘Writings on reckoning’: A translation of a Chinese mathematical collection of the second century BC, with explanatory commentary. Cambridge, Needham Research Institute Working Papers no 1. https://www.nri.cam.ac.uk/SuanshushuC.Cullen2004.pdf
2001: China: the dragon’s ascent. Hong Kong, PCCW IMS Ltd.
1996: Astronomy and mathematics in ancient China: the Zhou bi suan jing. Cambridge; New York, Cambridge University Press. https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/astronomy-and-mathematics-in-ancient-china/FA899B1F1C95108D3C914E7048698A0C
Recent journal articles and book chapters
2023: “Ferdinand Verbiest and the ‘Muslim astronomical system’ of Wu Mingxuan, 1669”. Tanshi qiuxin: Qingzhu Guo Shuchun xiansheng bashi huadan wenji 探史求新：庆祝郭书春先生八十华诞文集 (Festschrift for the 80th birthday of Professor Guo Shuchun). Zou Dahai, Guo Jinhai and Tian Miao, Eds. Harbin, Harbin Gongye Daxue Chubanshe 哈尔滨工业大学出版社 (Harbin Institute of Technology Press ), 148-187 (with Catherine Jami). https://shs.hal.science/halshs-04151276
2022: “Prediction and politics in Beijing, 1668: A Jesuit astronomer and his technical resources in a time of crisis.” Journal for the History of Astronomy 53 (4): 422-474 (with Catherine Jami). https://doi.org/10.1177/00218286221114093
2020: “Christmas 1668 and after: how Jesuit astronomy was restored to power in Beijing.” Journal for the History of Astronomy 51 (1): 3-50 (with Catherine Jami). https://doi.org/10.1177/0021828620901887
2019: “The two worlds of the Geneva sphere: heaven and earth in a 17th century Japanese model of the cosmos”. East-West encounter in the science of heaven and earth. Tokimasa Takeda and Bill M. Mak, Eds. Kyoto, Kyōto Daigaku Jinbun Kagaku Kenkyūjo 京都大学人文科学研究所, 175-206. https://shs.hal.science/halshs-04299596
2019: “The Geneva sphere: An astronomical model from 17th C. Japan.” Technology and Culture 60 (1): 219-251 (with Hiraoka Ryūji).
2019: “Jeon Sang Woon and Joseph Needham: Some Materials from the NRI Archives.” The Korean Journal for the History of Science 41 (2): 197-214. https://www.kci.go.kr/kciportal/landing/article.kci?arti_id=ART002495322
