The Society serves, represents, and speaks for scholars of the history of East Asian science, technology, and medicine worldwide. It was founded on 4 August 1990, on the occasion of the Sixth International Conference on the History of Science in China, held in Cambridge, UK. It also constitutes the East Asia Commission of the International Union of History and Philosophy of Science and Technology – Division for the History of Science and Technology (IUHPST-DHST).
The Society’s activities consist of:
- organizing a plenary conference every few years; the next conference (17th ICHSEA) will take place in 2027 at Inner Mongolia Normal University in Hohhot, PR China;
- seeking support for conferences and other activities from international organisations;
- finding means to aid scholars to enter the field;
- sponsoring publication of refereed research reports and monographs;
- publishing a journal, East Asian Science, Technology and Medicine (currently edited by Jongtae Lim, Seoul National University, Korea).
Current Board Members
The society is governed by a Board, whose membership is currently as follows:
President:
Togo Tsukahara, Professor, Kobe University, Kobe, Japan.
Vice-President:
Andrea Bréard, Professor, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität,
Erlangen-Nürnberg, Germany.
Secretary:
Mario Cams, Associate Professor, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium.
Treasurer:
Daniel Morgan, Researcher, Collège de France, Paris, France.
Journal Editor-in-chief:
Jongtae Lim, Professor, Seoul National University, Seoul, South Korea.
ICHSEA Liaison Officer:
Fuling Nie, Professor, Inner Mongolia Normal University, Hohhot, PR China.
Former Board Members
Former officers are listed in the following order:
President, Vice-President, Secretary, Treasurer, Journal Editor, ICHSEA Liaison Officer
1990-1993
Nathan Sivin, Ke Jun, Christopher Cullen, Georges Métailié, Benjamin A. Elman, Hashimoto Keizo
1993-1996
Nakayama Shigeru, Chen Meidong, Peter Golas, Catherine Jami, Benjamin A. Elman, Kim Yung Sik
1996-1999
Catherine Jami, Sun Xiaochun, Tsukahara Togo, Catherine Despeux, Hans Ulrich Vogel, Alan Chan, Kam Leung
1999-2002
Kim Yung Sik, Han Qi, Bridie Andrews, Annick Guénel, Hans Ulrich Vogel, JiangXiaoyuan
2002-2005
Liu Dun, Bridie Andrews, Michele Thompson, Annick Guénel, Hans Ulrich Vogel, Paul Unschuld
2005-2008
Christopher Cullen, Zhang Baichun, Fan Fa-ti, Vera Dorofeeva-Lichtmann, Hans Ulrich Vogel, Marta Hanson
2008-2011
Paul Unschuld, MeiJianjun, Lim Jongtae, Christopher Cullen, Hans Ulrich Vogel, Shi Yunli
2011-2015
Mei Jianjun, Shi Yunli, Jiang-Ping Jeff Chen, Caroline Bodolec, Hans Ulrich Vogel (up to March 2017), Catherine Jami
2015-2019
Marta Hanson, Alexei Volkov, Jiří Hudeček, Florence Bretelle-Establet, Shin Dong Won
2019-2023
Shi Yunli, Lim Jongtae, Sun Chengsheng, Florence Bretelle-Establet, Iwo Amelung