He received his doctorate in 2002 in Buddhist Studies from the University of Michigan. His research focuses on developments in tantric ritual in early medieval India and throughout later Tibetan history. After completing his PhD on the history of the Rnying ma school’s Bka’ ma tradition, he worked for three years under a post-doc at the International Dunhuang Project based at the British Library. In addition to a number of recent articles, he is the co-author (with Sam van Schaik) of Tibetan Tantric Manuscripts from Dunhuang (Brill, 2006). He is now working on two books, one on the role of violence in the Tibetan assimilation of Buddhism, and the other on the ritual history of early tantric Buddhism. Jacob has co-authored an article in Issue 3.