Pioneering economist quits Cambridge

Amartya Sen, a Nobel prize-winning economist, has resigned as master of Trinity College, Cambridge, to take up his old post at Harvard University, which he left six years ago.

Professor Sen is leaving one of the most coveted positions in British academia to spend more time with his calculator as the Lamont University professor of economics at Harvard from January.

"Six years is, I think, long enough, despite the attractions of the mastership of this great college. I have been very privileged to be master and intend to continue being active as a member of the Trinity community," Professor Sen said.

Insiders believed that Professor Sen, 68, wanted to get back to research rather than being bogged down with the administration and fund-raising expected of a head of an Oxbridge college.

The position of master of Trinity College is a crown appointment, so the Prime Minister will in effect make the next appointment.

Professor Sen, from Bengal, was the first Asian to head an Oxbridge college, and the second Nobel prizewinner from India, after the writer Rabin-dranath Tagore. Professor Sen was in California yesterday delivering a lecture.