Barry Michael Kerzin (born November 1, 1947) is an American physician and Buddhist monk. He has lived in Dharamshala, India since 1988 and serves as a personal physician to the 14th Dalai Lama, along with treating people in the local community. Following his ordination as a monk by the Dalai Lama in January 2003, he has travelled, teaching workshops in which he blends Buddhist teaching and his medical training. He has served as a research participant in neuroscience research into the effects of meditation on the brain.

Kerzin has been an adjunct professor (2021–22) at the University of Hong Kong (HKU) and a former Assistant Professor of Medicine at the University of Washington. He is founder and president of the Altruism in Medicine Institute (AIMI) and founder and chairman of the Human Values Institute (HVI) in Japan.

Kerzin was born in Hollywood, California in the Good Samaritan Hospital on All Saints day, November 1, 1947. When he read two books: one by D.T. Suzuki, An Introduction to Zen Buddhism, and The Way of Zen, by Alan Watts. He says he had been was plagued by questions of who he was and why he was here; they led him to join a philosophy club in high school and to switch to studying philosophy in college. He chose to continue on to medical school, because at the age of eleven he had a brain abscess that caused him to have seizures and fall into comas; it was eventually treated by a neurosurgeon with four brain surgeries, which inspired him to become a doctor.

Kerzin received BA in Philosophy from the University of California at Berkeley and in 1976 he received an MD degree from the University of Southern California.

Kerzin did his residency at Ventura County Medical Center and practiced family medicine in Ojai, California for seven years. His mother had died when he was 27, and just after he started working in Ojai, his wife was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. She died in 1983 and they had no children. He travelled in India, Sri Lanka, and Nepal for nearly a year, visiting several monasteries. He then obtained an appointment as an Assistant Professor of Medicine at the University of Washington School of Medicine from late 1985 to early 1989.

In the mid-1980s, B. Alan Wallace and the Dharma Friendship Foundation coaxed a lama from Dharamsala, Gen Lamrimpa, to go to Seattle for two years, and Kerzin served as his driver. In 1988, Lamrimpa returned to India and Kerzin accompanied him, intending to take a six-month leave of absence from the University of Washington. He stayed in Dharamsala when his leave ended, and began providing free medical care to the local community, Dalai Lama and other Tibetan lamas. He also began studying Buddhism and meditation, and he was ordained in February 2003 as a Bikkshu (Buddhist monk) by Dalai Lama. Kerzin has maintained his board certification with the American Board of Family Medicine.

In the mid-2000s, Kerzin served as a research subject in neuroscience research into the effects of meditation on the brain led by Richard J Davidson at the University of Wisconsin, as well as at Princeton University.

Kerzin founded the Human Values Institute in Japan in 2010, since teaching there starting in 2007; he serves as chairman of the organization. The institute holds an annual symposium in Tokyo, and leads pilgrimages on the island of Shikoku; the education focuses on healthy physical and emotional living and handling death compassionately. He taught about the Heart Sutra at the Gokokuji Temple in Tokyo shortly after the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami.