Bill Mak is Associate Professor of History of Science at the Institute for Research in Humanities and Hakubi Center at Kyoto University, Japan. He holds a PhD in Buddhist philology and Indian literature from Peking University (2010) and a BA (Hons.) in Linguistics and Sanskrit from McGill University (1996). He has conducted research related to Buddhist Sanskrit manuscripts and Indian astral science at Hamburg University, Kyoto University, Kyoto Sangyo University and Chulalongkorn University. His current research examines the dissemination of Greco-Babylonian astral science in Eurasia, with focus on materials from South Asia, East Asia and Southeast Asia. His research project at ISAW examines the Greek sources of a number of influential astral texts of the Indo-Greek tradition such as Sphujidhvaja's Yavanajātaka and Sino-Indian Buddhist astral works such as Amoghavajra's Xiuyao jing.
Bill's recent publications include: "The Last Chapter of Sphujidhvaja's Yavanajātaka critically edited with Notes" (SCIAMVS 14, 2013); "Yusi Jing - A Treatise of ‘Western’ Astral Science in Chinese and its versified Version Xitian Yusi Jing" (SCIAMVS 15, 2014) and "The Transmission of Buddhist Astral Science from India to East Asia - The Gandhāran and Central Asian Connections" (Historia Scientiarum, 2015).