From the Author

This book collected 35 outstanding people who studied hard along the Silk Road on sea and land and made extraordinary achievements in the field of science and technology in the form of their short biographies with pictures to introduce their background, highlights of their achievements, and impacts on future generations. The majority of scientists choosen for the book are ancient, with a few from 19th century covering regions from East Asia to the Mediterranean Sea. It includes 21 scientists from West Asia and North Africa (a few scholars from Central Asia and the Iberian Peninsula are also included in this section considering the influence of Islamic culture), 4 from South and Southeast Asia, 6 from Europe who have contributed to the scientific and technological exchanges between the East and the West, and 4 from China. 

It is expected that this book will also help the academic community to build a basic understanding of ancient scientific and technological figures for future study.

CHEN Wei, Ph.D. in Science. He is currently an associate professor at  the Institute for the History of Natural Sciences (IHNS), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), a member of the Youth Innovation Promotion Association of CAS, and member of ATES WG4 (Silk Road Science and Technology Exchange). His research interests include the history of Sino-foreign scientific and technological exchange, the history of technology, and the history of mathematics. He has led or participated in various research projects, and published monographs "Ancient Silk Roads and Technological Knowledge Dissemination" (2018) and "Science and Technology on the Silk Roads" (2023), as well as more than 20 papers and more than 70 popular science articles.