Oriental Institute, University of Oxford
Robert Mayer joined the Oriental Institute in 2002, where he holds the posts of University Research Lecturer and Research Officer. He completed his BA (Hons) at Bristol, and his PhD at Leiden. His first job was Lecturer in Religious Studies at the University of Wales, followed by a Visiting Chair in Tibetology at the Humboldt University of Berlin from 1999 to 2001, and after a year in the Anthropology Department at Kent, he came to Oxford in October 2002. He has also twice been a Visiting Scholar at Wolfson College. He is a specialist in the rNying ma school of Tibetan Buddhism, and has published a number of books, monographs and articles, over twenty of them since 2006 for the current REF period, and mostly together with his wife and co-worker, Dr Cathy Cantwell. One of his goals is to clarify the early rNying ma period by studying the Dunhuang texts in context. Another goal is to improve the standards of philology and critical editing within Tibetan Studies. A third goal is to preserve, protect and describe the few surviving witnesses of the once much more plentiful ‘Ancient Tantra Collection’, or rNying ma’i rgyud ‘bum. A researcher by vocation, he and his wife Dr Cathy Cantwell have designed and directed several large research projects, mainly funded by the AHRC. However, he also occasionally teaches and takes graduate students, particularly if their interests overlap with his.