Amartya Sen Wins Nobel Prize For Economics

Amartya K. Sen, Lamont University professor emeritus and a current adjunct and visiting professor in economics, was awarded the 1998 Nobel Prize in Economics yesterday morning.

"Amartya Sen has made a number of noteworthy contributions to central fields of economic science and opened up new fields of study," read a statement from the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, which awards the prize. "He has restored an ethical dimension to the discussion of vital economic problems."

Sen works in developmental economics, which is the study of the poorest people of the world.

Sen, born in India, attended Presidency College in Calcutta and received his bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees from Trinity College at the University of Cambridge.

He was appointed professor of economics at Oxford University in 1977 and Drummond professor of political economy at Oxford in 1980.

He came to Harvard in 1987, and before that, he held professorships at Delhi University, the London School of Economics and Oxford University. In 1988, he was named Lamont University professor.

Sen is currently the adjunct professor of population and international health at the Harvard School of Public Health and is based at the Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies in Cambridge.

When the news broke of Sen's award, Harvard administrators and faculty lost no time in sending their congratulations.

"Amartya works on the most fundamental problems that lie at the crossroads of economics and philosophy," said President Neil L. Rudenstine in a statement. "He brings to those problems imaginative, brilliant analytic power and a moral vision that keeps him focused upon matters of quality as well as functionality."

"Amartya has touched the intellectual lives of so many students and faculty at Harvard," said Dean of the Faculty Jeremy R. Knowles in another statement. "It's wonderful that such a gracious teacher and illuminating thinker should be so honored."

Sen's colleagues in the economics department echoed Rudenstine's and Knowles' praise.

Department of Economics Chair Jeffrey G. Williamson wrote in a statement published on the Web, "While Amartya left us last spring to become Master of Trinity College, all of us here at Harvard feel the warm glow that his Nobel Prize gives out from Cambridge east to Cambridge west."

Last August, Sen was appointed as Master of Trinity College at the University of Cambridge.

The Master of Trinity is the only head of the Oxbridge Colleges that is appointed by the Queen.

"Amartya Sen is a wonderful person. He has always been very kind and helpful towards the students and young faculty," said Andrew P. Metrick, associate professor of economics. "[He] has always been modest and self-effacing."

"We should all 'grow up' to be just like Amartya. I am very happy that he has been honored with the Nobel prize," Metrick said.

S. Madiha Murshed '99, a former student in Sen's class Economy 1395, "Development and Living Standards" said, "I think the man is brilliant. He has changed the way we think about famines, hunger and human development and influenced policy in a dramatic way."

Daniel Altman '96, a graduate student in the Department of Economics and a former Crimson executive, also was a student of Sen's.

"He's a hugely impressive intellect. I was not surprised [that he won the Nobel Prize]," he said.

Other graduate students who work with him say that Sen is generous with his time.

"It is this aspect of Professor Sen that sets him apart, this deeply human quality," said Arun Abraham in a statement. Abraham is a master's degree student in public policy and in theology who has worked as Sen's research assistant for three years.

Sen has also been president of the International Economic Association, the Indian Economic Association, the American Economic Association and the Econometric Society. He was also awarded an honorary vice presidency by the Royal Economic Society.

Sen's published works include Poverty and Famines: An Essay on Entitlement and Deprivation, Collective Choice and Social Welfare and Hunger and Public Action.