Arun Bala is a physicist and philosopher by education who is currently a visiting professor in the Department of Philosophy. and an adjunct professor in the Toronto School of Theology, both at the University of Toronto. He not only taught philosophy at the National University of Singapore for many years, but has also worked with various international institutions, including the Regional Institute for Higher Education Development of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies (Singapore), the Dalhousie University School for Resource and Environmental Studies (Canada) and the Foundation for Advanced Studies in International Development (Japan).  He is the author of the book The Dialogue of Civilizations in the Birth of Modern Science (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006).