Amartya Sen

Thomas W. Lamont University Professor and Professor of Economics and Philosophy at Harvard University

Amartya Kumar Sen was born in Santiniketan, India in 1933. He received a B.A. in economics with a minor in Mathematics in 1953 from Presidency College in Calcutta, India. At Trinity College in Cambridge, England, he received a second B.A. in economics in 1955 before completing H.A. and Ph.D. degrees in 1959.

Mr. Sen has taught economics at a long list of universities, including Jadavpur University in Calcutta, Cambridge University, University of Delhi, London School of Economics and Oxford University. He has also served as visiting professor at Cornell, Harvard, Berkeley, Stanford and MIT.

Mr. Sen’s 1970 book “Collective Choice and Social Welfare” helped to renew interest in welfare issues. In 1998, he was awarded the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for his work in welfare economics.

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