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AROUND THE QUADS
Sachs, Noted Economist, To Head Earth Institute
By Lisa Palladino

Taking Notes from Nature
Jeffrey Sachs
 
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Harvard University Professor Jeffrey D. Sachs has been named director of Columbia’s Earth Institute, effective July 1. Sachs, who serves as an economic adviser to several governments and is a special adviser to the United Nations, is widely considered one of the most important economists in the world.

At Columbia, Sachs will be professor of economics, international and public affairs and health policy and management, with appointments in three schools: Arts and Sciences, the School of International and Public Affairs and the Mailman School of Public Health. Sachs’ appointment was made jointly by President George Rupp and his successor, Lee C. Bollinger. He will report to Provost Jonathan R. Cole ’64 on the operations of the Earth Institute as an academic research and teaching unit and to the president on matters pertaining to the development of the institute’s global agenda.

At Harvard, where he has been since he entered as a first-year 29 years ago, Sachs is director of the Center for International Development and Galen L. Stone Professor of International Trade. He also is former director of the Harvard Institute for International Development and a research associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research. During 2000–01, he chaired the Commission on Macroeconomics and Health of the World Health Organization, and from September 1999 through March 2000, he served as a member of the International Financial Institutions Advisory Commission, which was established by Congress. Sachs also serves as co-chairman of the Advisory Board of The Global Competitiveness Report, and has been a consultant to the IMF, the World Bank, the OECD and the United Nations Development Program.

During 1986–90, Sachs was an adviser to the president of Bolivia, and from 1988–90, he advised the governments of Argentina, Brazil, Ecuador and Venezuela on financial reform. In 1989, he advised Poland’s Solidarity movement on economic reforms, and at the request of the Solidarity leadership, prepared a draft program of radical economic transformation. After August 1989, he advised Poland’s first post-communist government on the introduction of radical economic reforms in 1990 and 1991. From fall 1991 through January 1994, he led a team of economic advisers for Russian President Boris Yeltsin on issues of macroeconomic stabilization, privatization, market liberalization and international financial relations.

Sachs founded a non-governmental research unit, the Institute for Economic Analysis, in Moscow. In addition, he advised the Slovenian and Estonian governments on the introduction of new national currencies in 1991 and 1992. During 1991–93, he advised the Mongolian government on macroeconomic reforms and privatization.
In January 1998, Sachs was the first foreigner in the 43-year history of Japan’s Liberal Democratic Party to be asked to deliver a keynote address at the LDP national convention. Sachs also served as the economic adviser to the Jubilee 2000 movement, meeting with Pope John Paul II; he previously met with the pope in 1990 as a member of a group of economists invited to confer with the Pontifical Council on Justice and Peace in advance of the Papal Encyclical Centesimus Annus.
Sachs’ research interests include the links of health and development, economic geography, globalization, transition to market economies in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, international financial markets, international macroeconomic policy coordination, emerging markets, economic development and growth, global competitiveness and macroeconomic policies in developing and developed countries.

The Earth Institute, a leader in earth systems teaching and research, is a federation of eight research and teaching centers: Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Goddard Institute for Space Studies at Columbia, Biosphere 2 Center, Center for Environmental Research and Conservation, Earth Engineering Center, International Research Institute for Climate Prediction, Center for International Earth Science Information Network, and Laboratory of Populations, which is a joint venture of Columbia and Rockefeller University.

Sachs has published more than 100 scholarly articles and has authored or edited myriad books. He has received numerous awards and honors, including membership in several academies and societies. In addition, he is a member of the Brookings Panel of Economists, the Board of Advisors of the Chinese Economists Society and several other organizations.

Sachs received his B.A. in 1976, M.A. in 1978 and Ph.D. in 1980, all from Harvard. He joined the faculty there as an assistant professor in 1980 and was promoted to associate professor in 1982 and full professor in 1983.

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Alumni Dance Party May 31
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