Robert Barnett (born 1953) is a Professorial Research Associate at SOAS (School of Oriental and African Studies), University of London, a Senior Research Fellow at Hong Kong Baptist University, and a Research Affiliate at the Lau China Institute, King's College, London. He is the former Director of the Modern Tibetan Studies Program, where he was Adjunct Professor of Contemporary Tibetan Studies and Senior Research Scholar in modern Tibetan history at the Weatherhead East Asian Institute at Columbia University. He retired from Columbia as of January 2018. He is also referred to as Robbie Barnett by the media.