Economist; Director, Columbia University Earth Institute; Special Adviser to U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan
Location New York, NY
Age 51
College A.B. 1976
GSAS A.M. 1978, Ph.D. 1980

Heads most short lists for the Nobel Prize, thanks to his early work on inflation and finance reform, his role in restructuring the communist economies of Poland and Russia, and his more recent plans to end world poverty. His network stretches from the executive offices of the U.N. to village elders in Kenya; as Annan’s point man on the U.N.’s Millennium Development Goals, Sachs delivers economic talking points with the zeal of a preacher. As the (simplified) argument goes, extreme poverty can be eliminated by 2025 if every developed country commits 0.7% of its GDP to development aid—money that would go to bed nets to prevent malaria, deworming treatments, school meal programs, and other strategic investments. Bill Clinton and Bono are already on board.

However… Many development economists remain skeptical, and Sachs is still trying to persuade the American public to think of the money as an investment rather than a giveaway.

Google hits 960,000 for “Jeffrey Sachs”; 12.1 million for “Millennium Development Goals”