本傑明·艾爾曼（Benjamin A. Elman）1946年齣生。1968年獲美國漢密爾頓學院學士學位，1980年獲賓夕法尼亞大學東方學博士學位。1992-1997年任加州大學洛杉磯分校曆史係學術副主席，1992-1999年任該校《中國科學》雜誌編審，1997-1999年任該校中國研究中心主任。1999-2001年，艾爾曼作為梅隆訪問教授在普林斯頓高等研究院從事傳統中國文明研究。2002年，正式齣任普林斯頓大學東亞係和曆史係教授。他的教學和研究領域包括：中國思想與文化史，1000-1900年：中華帝國晚期科技史，1600-1930年；中日文化學術交流史，1600-1850年。艾爾曼教授著述頗豐，著作主要有：《從理學到樸學：中華帝國晚期的思想與社會變化麵麵觀》（1984年第1版，2001年第2版）、《經學、政治和宗族：中華帝國晚期常州今文學派研究》（1990）、《晚期中華帝國科舉文化史》（2000）、《以他們自己的方式：科學在中國，1550-1900》（2005）等。

Historians of science and Sinologists have long needed a unified narrative to describe the Chinese development of modern science, medicine, and technology since 1600. They welcomed the appearance in 2005 of Benjamin Elman's masterwork, On Their Own Terms. Now Elman has retold the story of the Jesuit impact on late imperial China, circa 1600-1800, and the Protestant era in early modern China from the 1840s to 1900 in a concise and accessible form ideal for the classroom. This coherent account of the emergence of modern science in China places that emergence in historical context for both general students of modern science and specialists of China.

Review

Elman shows that progress in Chinese science continued after 1600, as it absorbed new ideas from the West, and, for him, China's nineteenth-century failure to respond adequately to Western incursions has been exaggerated...[A Cultural History of Modern Science in China] offer[s] a new and important perspective on Sino-European interaction.

--Delia Davin (Times Literary Supplement 20070901)

Elman's study is a tremendous achievement, both in its analytical insight and empirical depth.

--Thomas S. Mullaney (Science 20090430)

In this concise but comprehensive new book, Elman makes his masterful synthesis of the scholarship in the field--including his own--accessible to nonspecialists. A textbook treating modern Chinese science up to 1900, long awaited, has at last emerged.

--Danian Hu (Isis )

In this concise, accessible, but comprehensive book, Benjamin Elman describes the effects on science of the Jesuit mission in imperial China in 1600–1800, and the latter influence of Protestants in the nineteenth century. By doing so, he places the emergence of modern science in China in historical context. (Nature )