Pre-eminent American economist Jeffrey D. Sachs will deliver the 2006 Jill and Kenneth Iscol Distinguished Environmental Lecture Friday, April 21, at 4:30 p.m. in the David L. Call Auditorium in Kennedy Hall. His talk, "The End of Poverty: Economic Possibilities for Our Time," is free and open to the public.

Sachs, director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University and director of the United Nations' Millennium Project, is an adviser to several governments. He also is the Quetelet Professor of Sustainable Development and professor of health policy and management at Columbia. Time magazine twice named him (in 2004 and 2005) among the 100 most influential leaders in the world.

While on campus, Sachs will talk with key Cornell faculty on issues of poverty development and the environment, and he will attend a graduate luncheon and sustainable development seminar.

Sachs is internationally renowned for his work with international agencies to reduce poverty, debt and disease in the world's poorest countries. His advice on economic reforms has helped ameliorate economic crises in Bolivia, Poland and Russia. He is the author of numerous articles and books, and his syndicated newspaper column appears in 50 countries. In 2005 Sachs received the Sargent Shriver Award for Equal Justice. He received his B.A., M.A. and Ph.D. from Harvard University and taught at the university for more than 20 years before joining Columbia in 2002.

Established in 1991, the annual Iscol lectureship brings prominent scholars, newsmakers, scientists and leaders to Cornell to address environmental issues of vital importance. A faculty awards committee representing a cross section of academic disciplines selects the lecturer.

Kenneth Iscol is a 1960 graduate of Cornell's School of Industrial and Labor Relations. He has owned and operated mobile and personal communications businesses for over 30 years and is a member of Cornell University Council and chair of the Committee on Sustainable Development and Environmental Stewardship.

For more information about Sachs and the Iscol Lecture, visit http://www.environment.cornell.edu/iscol/ or call the Cornell Center for the Environment at (607) 255-7535.