Associate Professor of Neurosurgery at the University of Sydney before he retired in 1999. During his medical career he pursued concurrently studies in languages and philosophy, and has devoted himself to the studies on a full-time basis since retirement. He started learning Chinese in 1970, and obtained his MLitt in Philosophy from University of New England in 1995 (dissertation topic: the Pre-Qin School of Names). He is also proficient in Greek and Latin.
Senior lecturer in the School of Languages and Linguistics at the University of New South Wales. Her research and publications are primarily dedicated to classical Chinese poetry and aesthetics.