Nathan Sivin Nathan Sivin ( born 11 May 1931 ) , also known as Xiwen ( ) is an American author , scholar , sinologist , historian , essayist , and currently professor emeritus at the University of Pennsylvania . He resides in Philadelphia with his wife , the artist Carole Sivin . The major areas of study and focus in Nathan Sivin ' s career and written publications have been in the history of science and technology in China , Traditional Chinese medicine , Chinese philosophy , and Chinese religious beliefs . He speaks four different foreign language s and has traveled abroad to many countries , on four continents , numerous times since the 1960s . In his written works he has also collaborated with many other prominent scholars , such as G . E . R . Lloyd and Joseph Needham . Education and career . From 1954 until 1956 , Sivin was enrolled in an 18 month language program for Chinese at the U . S . Army Language School . He then went on to receive his Bachelor of Science degree with a chemistry minor at MIT in June 1958 . He received his Master of Arts in history of science at Harvard University in 1960 , and his Ph . D . in history of science at Harvard University in 1966 . He received an honorary M . A . at the University of Pennsylvania . In 1966 , at MIT , Nathan Sivin served as an assistant professor of humanities , associate professor in 1969 , and professor from 1972 until 1977 , where he them moved to the University of Pennsylvania as a professor of Chinese culture and history of science . Nathan Sivin has studied abroad on many occasions . From October 1961 to August 1962 he studied Chinese language and philosophy at Taipei in Taiwan . From August 1962 to March 1963 he studied the history of Chinese alchemy in Singapore and provided guest lectures there . From the 1960s until the 1980s he was an avid visitor to Kyoto in Japan , where he acted as a visiting professor , studied at the Research Institute of Humanistic Studies , and studied Chinese astronomy , alchemy , and medicine . From 1974 to 2000 he made numerous trips to Cambridge in order to study Chinese astronomy , visiting Gonville and Caius College , the Needham Research Institute , and St . John ' s College in the process . From the late 1970s until the late 1990s he traveled several times to the People ' s Republic of China . In September 1979 he lectured in seminars at the École Pratique des Hautes Etudes of Paris , France , and at the Sinologisches Seminar at the University of Würzburg in Germany in 1981 . Nathan Sivin also speaks several foreign languages , including Chinese , Japanese , German , and French . Along with various responsibilities at the University of Pennsylvania , throughout his career Nathan Sivin was also an elective member of numerous societies and committees . This included the American Society for the Study of Religion , the Philomathean Society , the Académie Internationale d ' Histoire des Sciences , the T ' ang Studies Society , and many others . Along with numerous book publications since the 1960s , Nathan Sivin also wrote many more essays from the 1960s onwards . He has also given over 200 lectures throughout Europe , Asia , Australia , and North America . He is currently working on several projects , including a biography on the Song Dynasty polymath scientist Shen Kuo and a translation into English of a Yuan Dynasty calendrical treatise published in 1279 AD , the " Season - Granting " ( a hallmark of Chinese mathematical astronomy ) . Selected works . In a statistical overview derived from writings by and about Nathan Sivin , OCLC / WorldCat encompasses roughly 50 works in 80 + publications in 7 languages and 4 , 000 + library holdings .