Ian Johnston

Ian Johnston has had a lifelong interest in ancient languages beginning in his days as a medical undergraduate at the Univer¬sity of St Andrews. Despite a busy medical career he found time to pursue his studies of language, obtaining a PhD in Chinese and an MA in Latin from the Sydney University and a PhD in Greek from the University of New England, New South Wales. On his retirement as Associate Professor of Neurosurgery at Sydney University in 1999, he moved to South Bruny Island off the southern coast of Tasmania and now devotes his time to reading and translation. He has published two books of translations of early Chinese poetry, Singing of Scented Grass and Waiting for the Owl, and two translations of early Chinese philosophical works, the Mozi and the Daxue and Zhongyong (the latter in collaboration with Wang Ping), both in bilingual form. His Greek studies have focused on the second-century-CE doctor Galen. In 2011 he was awarded the New South Wales Premier's Prize and the PEN medallion for translation.