Amartya Sen Citation
Amartya K. Sen. Nobel-prize winning economist. Distinguished scholar. Insightful theoretician. Expert on world poverty and the ravages of famine. You have focused your life's work on these fundamental problems - your name is now synonymous with "welfare economics."
Born in Santiniketan, India, in the present state of West Bengal, you received your undergraduate education at Presidency College in Calcutta, and earned your doctorate at Trinity College in Cambridge in 1959. From your first professorship in Calcutta in 1956, you continued your teaching at Delhi University, the London School of Economics, and Oxford University, among others. Your global influence brought you to the United States, where you are currently Harvard University's Lamont University Professor, and Professor of Economics and Philosophy (a professorship that you held previously from 1988 to 1998). Beginning in 1998 until just recently, you were Master of Trinity College, Cambridge University.
You are a leading voice for the alleviation of deprivations and the reduction of inequalities of all kinds, and have shown special concern for those related to gender. You count among your posts the past presidencies of the American Economic Association, the Econometric Society, the International Economic Association, the Indian Economic Association, and the Development Studies Association. Your research, which has been translated into many languages, has embraced fields ranging from philosophy and social choice theory to the economics of famine. You are prolific in your writings, from your famous 1970 treatise, Collective Choice and Social Welfare , which remains timely and compelling, to your recent book, Rationality and Freedom .
In 1998, when you became the first citizen of India awarded the Nobel Prize for Economics, India's Prime Minister spoke on behalf of the country by declaring that, "You have made us all proud." The Nobel Prize was awarded to you in recognition that, beyond pioneering new techniques of economic analysis, you have valued human dignity and flourishing. You said upon winning that you were particularly pleased to be honored for research in a subject that has touched the lives of ordinary people.
Beyond the Nobel Prize, recognition for your work also includes the " Bharat Ratna ," the highest civilian honor awarded by the President of India, the Eisenhower Medal, the Giovanni Agnelli International Prize for Ethics, the Alan Shawn Feinstein World Hunger Award, and many others.
Today we join people from all corners of the globe in praise of your transformative research and your extraordinary humanity. Through your work, monumental in both scope and impact, you have committed a lifetime to improving the lives of others.
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