Luis O. Gomez

Luis O. Gomez was a Puerto Rican buddhologist, translator and psychologist. He is most well-known for his work on Mahāyāna texts and for establishing the Buddhist Studies graduate program at the University of Michigan. His scholarship was characterized by a philological approach to texts emphasizing the historical aspects of ideas derived from the close reading of the primary sources in their canonical languages. He was trained under the guidance of several prominent scholars such as Stanley Insler, Herbert V. Günther, Paul Tedesco, Johannes Rahder|Johannes Rahder, Paul Mus and Étienne Lamotte. For more than 40 years, he held several academic positions. First in the Department of philosophy at the University of Puerto Rico, then at the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor) and, later, at El Colegio de México. Throughout his tenure years, the University of Michigan conferred him the position “Charles O. Hucker Professor of Buddhist and Religious Studies.” at the Asian Languages and Cultures department, while simultaneously acting as the head of that department. Moreover, he also worked as a Professor of Psychology at the Psychology Department. After retiring, he was granted the title “Arthur F. Thurnau Professor Emeritus of Asian Languages and Cultures.” In his later years, having moved to Mexico City, he held a Professor-Researcher position at the Center for Asian and African Studies of El Colegio de México.