David Christian (D.Phil. Oxford, 1974) is by training a historian of Russia and the Soviet Union. In 1989, he began teaching courses on 'Big History' at Macquarie University, surveying the past on the largest possible scales, including those of biology and astronomy. David is the author of ‘Maps of Time’, the first text on Big History. He recently co-authored ‘Big History: Between Nothing and Everything.’ David is a Distinguished Professor of History at Macquarie University, founder with Bill Gates of the Big History Project, and Director of the Big History Institute.