India's Nobel Prize-winning Economist Amartya Sen named for the 2011 US National Humanities Medal

The White House on 10 February 2012 named India's Nobel Prize-winning economist Amartya Sen the  receipient of the 2011 US National Humanities Medal. Amartya Sen, who retains his Indian citizenship, is the first Indian to be honored with the medal that is typically awarded to US nationals. While Indian scholars and experts of Indian-origin had previously won White House recognition in science and engineering in the form of National Medals, this is a first in humanities.

The White House citation described him as an economist and a philosopher. Sen was recognised while for his insights into the causes of poverty, famine, and injustice. By applying philosophical thinking to questions of policy, he changed how standards of living are measured and increased our understanding of how to fight hunger. Sen helped create the United Nations Human Development Index.

Amartya Sen had won his Nobel Prize for economics in 1998 for his studies of the roots of poverty. He is currently the Thomas W. Lamont University Professor and Professor of Economics and Philosophy at Harvard University,
Sen is among four (an unusually high number) foreign-born luminaries in a distinguished list for the 2011 US National Humanities Medal. The list also includes the American poet John Ashbery, historians Robert Darnton and Cuba-born Teofilo Ruiz; Ghanian-British-American philosopher Kwame Anthony Appiah, music scholar Charles Rosen, literary scholars Andrew Delbanco and Ramon Saldivar and the educational program National History Day.

National Humanities Medal

The National Humanities Medal came into existence in 1996. It honors individuals or groups whose work has deepened the nation's understanding of the humanities, broadened our citizens' engagement with the humanities, or helped preserve and expand Americans' access to important resources in the humanities. It has been bestowed on 133 individuals since its inception.

Previous awardees of the prestigious medal include Nobel Prize winners Toni Morrison and Elie Wiesel, historians and biographers such as William Manchester and Arthur Schlesinger, and even entertainers such as Quincy Jones and Stephen Spielberg, besides many sociologists and anthropologists.