Professor Nicholas Sims-Williams is the Head of the Near and Middle East Department of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London.
Professor Sims-Williams is one of the world's leading experts on Bactrian and Soghdian texts. Prof. Sims-Williams has served on the Councils of the Corpus Inscriptionum Iranicarum, Societas Iranologica Europaea, The Philological Society, The Society for Afghan Studies and The Ancient India and Iran Trust. He is the editor of Beiträge zur Iranistik and an Associate Editor of Encyclopaedia Iranica. He currently holds a major research grant for his work on a Dictionary of Manichaean Texts and a Major Research Fellowship from the Leverhulme Trust. In 1997 he was joint winner of the Hirayama prize for Silk Road Studies.
Amongst his many contributions to Bactrian Studies, Prof. Sims-Williams was responsible for the translation of the Rabatak inscription, which resulted in the rewriting of early Kushan dynastic history. He is currently working on a translation of the Tang-i Safedak inscription, from the Yakawlang district of Bamiyan Province