Cambridge University honours Amartya Sen

London, Jun 13: Nobel laureate Amartya Sen was conferred the honorary Doctor of Letters degree by the University of Cambridge.

The degree was conferred on him on Friday, Jun 12 by Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, at the 800th Anniversary Honorary Degree Congregation at the Senate House in Cambridge.

Other nine prominent individuals to be honoured included Bill and Melinda Gates, who were conferred the honorary Doctor of Laws degree, and Prince Karim al-Hussaini Aga Khan, who was conferred the degree of Doctor of Divinity.

Sen is known for his contributions to welfare economics for his work on famine, human development theory, welfare economics, the underlying mechanisms of poverty, gender inequality, and political liberalism. He won the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in the year 1998.

From 1998 to 2004 he was Master of Trinity College at Cambridge University, becoming the first Indian academic to head an Oxbridge college. He is also a former honorary president of Oxfam.

He is currently the Thomas W. Lamont University Professor and Professor of Economics and Philosophy at Harvard University. His books have been translated into more than thirty languages. He is a trustee of Economists for Peace and Security.

As of 2009 he has received over 80 honorary doctorates from several world renowned universities worldwide.

ANI