David Seyfort Ruegg (August 1, 1931 – February 2, 2021)[2] was an eminent American-British Buddhologist with a long career, extending from the 1950s to the present.
Ruegg graduated from École des Hautes Etudes in 1957, with degrees in historical science and Sanskrit.
He received a second doctorate in linguistics from the Sorbonne in Paris, where his thesis was "La théorie du tathâgatagarbha et du gotra : études sur la sotériologie et la gnoséologie du bouddhisme" ("The Theory of Gotra and Tathâgatagarbha: A Study of the Soteriology and Gnoseology of Buddhism"), with a second half thesis on Buton Rinchen Drub's approach to tathâgatagarbha.
Ruegg joined the faculty of the Ecole Francaise d'Extreme Orient in 1964, where he researched the history, philology and philosophy of India, Tibet and Buddhism.
From 1966 to 1972, Ruegg occupied the Chair of Languages and Cultures of India and Tibet at Leiden University.