Rate My Professor Samuel N. C. Lieu

Samuel N. C. Lieu is Emeritus Professor in the School of Humanities at Macquarie University, having served as Professor of Ancient History from 1996 until his retirement in 2016, when he was Inaugural Distinguished Professor. He obtained his BA and MA degrees from Emmanuel College, Cambridge, and his DPhil in Ancient History from the University of Oxford in 1981. Earlier in his career, he was Junior Research Fellow at Wolfson College, Oxford (1974-1976), and held positions from Lecturer to Professor of Ancient History at the University of Warwick (1976-1996).

Lieu specializes in the history of Manichaeism across the Roman Empire, Mesopotamia, Central Asia, and China, alongside studies of Christianity and other religions transmitted along the Silk Roads, the Roman Eastern Frontier, and interactions between ancient China and the Mediterranean world. His major publications include Manichaeism in the Later Roman Empire and Medieval China: A Historical Survey (Manchester University Press, 1985), Manichaeism in Mesopotamia and the Roman East (Brill, 1994), Manichaeism in Central Asia and China (Brill, 1998), Manichaean Texts from the Roman Empire (Cambridge University Press, 2004, co-edited with Iain Gardner), Medieval Christian and Manichaean Remains from Quanzhou (Zayton) (Brepols, 2012), and Tractatus Manichaicus Sinicus: Pars Prima (Brepols, 2017, co-authored). He has edited key documentary histories such as The Roman Eastern Frontier and the Persian Wars AD 226-363 (Routledge, 1994) and volumes in the Corpus Fontium Manichaeorum series. Lieu is co-director of the UNESCO-sponsored Corpus Fontium Manichaeorum project since 1996 and has led research initiatives like 'China and the Ancient Mediterranean World'. His honors include Fellowships of the Royal Historical Society (1983), Society of Antiquaries of London (1989), Australian Academy of the Humanities (1999), British Academy (2021), and Royal Society of New South Wales (2016), as well as the Australian Centenary Medal (2003) and presidency of the International Union of Academies (2017-2021).