Partha Dasgupta is an economist who has helped to shape our understanding of how human beings manage and consume natural resources. A physicist, mathematician and economist by training, he was amongst the first researchers to identify the consequences of environmental degradation on the world’s poorest people.

In making the connection between developmental economics and the burgeoning discipline of ecology, Partha helped to more accurately define the way in which human activity impacts on the planet. His extensive research on the effects of malnutrition on behaviour have also been central to establishing improved metrics to define human wellbeing.

In addition to being a Fellow of the British Academy and the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences, Partha is a past President of both the Royal Economic Society and the European Economic Association. He is a Foreign Member of the US National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Philosophical Society, and the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. He was named a Knight Bachelor in 2002 for services to economics.