Short answers, pulled from the story.
Donald S. Lopez Jr. is an American scholar of Buddhism, born in 1952, who holds the title of Arthur E. Link Distinguished University Professor of Buddhist and Tibetan Studies at the University of Michigan, in the Department of Asian Languages and Cultures.
Lopez studied at the University of Virginia, earning a B.A. with honors in Religious Studies in 1974, an M.A. in Buddhist Studies in 1977, and a doctorate in Buddhist Studies in 1982.
In 2008, Lopez delivered four talks titled "The Scientific Buddha: Past, Present, Future" as part of the Dwight H. Terry Lectureship at Yale University. In 2012, he delivered the Edwin O. Reischauer Lectures at Harvard, titled "The White Lama Ippolito."
Lopez's authored books range from "A Study of Svatantrika" in 1987 to "The Buddha: Biography of a Myth," published by Yale University Press on the 2nd of September 2025, and include the baseball-themed "Buddha Takes the Mound: Enlightenment in 9 Innings."
Lopez is married to Tomoko Masuzawa, herself a prominent scholar of Religious Studies.
Lopez is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and his co-edited volume "The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism," made with Robert E. Buswell Jr., won awards.