A world-renowned China specialist and former Associate in Research at Harvard's Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies, Ross Terrill is the author of more than a dozen books. Raised in rural Australia, he graduated in history and political science from the University of Melbourne in 1962 and served in the Australian Army. He took a Ph.D. in political science at Harvard in 1970, where his thesis on the philosophy of R. H. Tawney was awarded the Sumner Prize and was later published by Harvard University Press as Socialism as Fellowship. While teaching at Harvard on political thought, Chinese politics, and international affairs, Terrill wrote 800,000,000: The Real China, The Future of China: After Mao, Flowers on an Iron Tree: Five Cities of China, and the original edition of Mao, his acclaimed biography of the Chinese leader. As a contributing editor of The Atlantic Monthly he won the National Magazine Award for Reporting Excellence and the George Polk Memorial Award for Outstanding Magazine Reporting for writings on China. In 1979 he became an American citizen. Terrill is a many-time contributor to the New York Times and other newspapers, including Newsday, Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times, Miami Herald, and Washington Post. In addition to the Atlantic Monthly, he has written for Foreign Affairs, New Republic, National Geographic, World Monitor and other magazines. More recent books he has written include The White-Boned Demon: A Biography of Madame Mao and The Australians. Terrill has moved within a triangle of academia, journalistic writing, and public life, testifying numerous times before committees of the United States Congress. He has been a special commentator for CBS News, the Today Show, ABC's Nightline, Firing Line and-often from China-on NPR's All Things Considered.Terrill has visited China almost every year for many years and within China his Mao in Chinese translation has sold more than 1.5 million copies. He spent the month of June, 1989 in Beijing, including the climactic night of June 3-4 in Tiananmen Square. Recently, he has been visiting professor at the University of Texas at Austin and at Monash University in Australia. Terrill's The New Chinese Empire won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. In 2020, he published his memoir, From Australian Bush to Tiananmen Square.Terrill lives in Boston.