lance selwyn cousins (7 april 1942 – 14 march 2015) was a leading scholar in the field of buddhist studies. born in hitchin, hertfordshire, he studied history and oriental studies at cambridge university, and took up a post in the department of comparative religion at manchester university as lecturer and then senior lecturer. after early retirement in the 1990s he settled in oxford and continued to publish scholarly papers and reviews including a widely cited historical summary such as "the dating of the historical buddha: a review article," which was published in the journal of the royal asiatic society. he was a fellow at wolfson college university of oxford and part of the faculty at the oxford centre for buddhist studies. prior to this, he was briefly president (2002/3) of the pali text society (pts). professor richard gombrich once described him as the leading authority in the west in the field of abhidhamma.