Sen, Amartya (1933-)

Indian-born welfare economist, philosopher and social thinker. Born in Satiniketan, India, on a university campus founded by the poet and philosopher Rabindranath Tagore, Sen came from an academic family. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics in 1998 for his contributions to measuring and understanding poverty in developing nations. Formerly Master of Trinity College, Cambridge, he is currently the Lamont University Professor at Harvard University. His publications include On Economic Inequality (1973), Poverty and Famines (1981), Rationality and Freedom (2003), Identity and Violence: The illusion of Destiny (2006) and The Idea of Justice (2009).