Amartya Sen

His first wife was Nabaneeta Dev Sen with whom he had two children, Antara Sen and Nandana Sen. The marriage ended in 1971.

In 1973, he married Eva Colorni and they had two children together. She died of stomach cancer in 1985.

In 1991, he married Emma Georgina Rothschild. The couple often vacation in their Cambridge home in Massachusetts.

Amartya Sen was born in Santiniketan, West Bengal, India to Ashutosh Sen, a Professor, who later served as the Chairman of the West Bengal Public Service Commission, and Amita Sen.

In 1941, he was enrolled at the St Gregory's School, Dhaka and after the partition of India, his family moved to India, where he attended the Visva-Bharati University School.

In 1953, he graduated from Presidency College, Kolkata with a First Class Honours in B.A Economics. That year, he attended Trinity College, Cambridge, where he earned another B.A.

In 1956, at the age of 23, he was appointed as the Professor and head of the Economics Department at the Jadavpur University, Calcutta. After two years, he went back to Cambridge University to pursue his Ph.D.

In 1959, he submitted his Ph.D. thesis titled ‘the choice of techniques’, after which he was a visiting Professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

In 1970, his first book titled ‘Collective Choice and Social Welfare’, which is considered as one of his most influential monographs that addressed the issues of basic welfare, justice, equality and individual rights.

Published in the year 1973, his book ‘On Economic Inequality’, was a study of the theory of welfare economics in relation to the study of economic inequality.

His 1982 essay, ‘Poverty and Famines: An Essay on Entitlements and Deprivation’, highlighted the cause of lack of food supply, malnutrition and an analysis of famines.

In 1984, his work development economies, ‘Resources, Values, and Development’ was published. The publication focussed on the investment design, shadow rating, employment policy, and welfare economics.

His 1987 publication ‘On Ethics and Economics’, was a critical piece of writing that argued that welfare economics and modern ethical studies can benefit from each other.

His publication ‘Development as Freedom’ was recognised by the Nobel Prize committee as an important contribution in the field of economic development theory.

One of his seminal 1992 works ‘Inequality Reexamined’, is an acclaimed book that brought together all the important themes of his work from over a decade. In this book he addresses some of the most important concerns of inequality.