Samuel LIEU 劉南強 (Honorary Fellow)

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Fields of Study:

Ancient and Early Medieval History, especially in the study of the contacts between Ancient Civilizations across Central Asia; the military and religious history of the Late Roman East

Profile:

Samuel Lieu is Emeritus Professor at the Department of Ancient History, Macquarie University. He is an Honorary Fellow of the HKAH.

Samuel Lieu's biography and research in his own words:

"I have a broad research interest in Ancient and Early Medieval History, especially in the study of the contacts between Ancient Civilizations across Central Asia. I am currently Co-Director of the UNESCO-sponsored Corpus Fontium Manichaeorum Project and I also have research projects on the military and religious history of the Late Roman East. I began my teaching career at Warwick University in the UK in 1976 and was promoted to a full Professorship in 1994 and appointed Director of the Centre for East Roman Studies. 

I joined the Department at Macquarie in 1996 as Professor of Ancient History and became Co-Director of the Ancient History Documentary Research Centre in 1998. Besides winning a succession of ARC Large and Discovery Project Grants, I have concentrated on developing younger scholars in researching in my many areas of interest and a number have succeeded to win academic appointments. 

My current major research project is on the history of Zayton (Quanzhou) in South China - a key port-city of the Maritime Silk Road at the time of Marco Polo and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. I also conduct regular field surveys in Syria and S. Turkey. I am a Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities and represent the Australian Academy at the International Union of Academies.  I was awarded the title of Inaugural Distinguished Professor by Macquarie University in 2010, and am a recipient of an Australian Research Council Discovery Outstanding Research Award (DORA) (i.e. a salaried Research Professorship) between January 2013 and December 2015. I was also elected as a Bureau (i.e. Council) Member of Union Academique Internationale / International Union of Academics (2013-2017). In late 2015 I was elected Fellow of the Royal Society of New South Wales.

I retired from being an Inaugural Distinguished Professor in March 2016 and am currently an Adjunct Professor at Macquarie University.  I am also a regular Visiting Fellow at Wolfson College, Cambridge and a Trustee of the Ancient India and Iran Trust, also at Cambridge. In 2017 I was elected President of the Brussels-based International Union of Academies (UAI: Union Académique Internationale) (2017-2021) and I am the first Asian-born scholar and the second Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities to hold this prestigious position.