Michael Loewe was Professor Emeritus of Chinese Studies at the University of Cambridge, UK. Trained initially in Classics, he was one of the most prominent scholars of Chinese history and culture. Loewe also served as the Director of the Needham Research Institute in Cambridge, UK, which is devoted to the study of the history of East-Asian science and technology. He was author of a dozen books on early China, and the co-editor of China's Early Empires: A Reappraisal (2010) and The Cambridge History of Ancient China (1986).