Harvard may lose its leading international economist—a professor for two decades—to Columbia University, according to a recent published report.

Stone Professor of International Development Jeffrey D. Sachs ’76 is considering an offer to head the Earth Institute, a Columbia research group that studies issues of sustainable development around the world, according to a Mar. 21 story in the International Herald Tribune.

Through his secretary, Sachs refused to comment on his reported move.

The Herald Tribune’s story suggested that Sachs’ interest in the Columbia position stemmed at least in part from how the post “would also allow him to work closely with the United Nations secretary-general, Kofi Annan.”

Sachs, who specializes in the developing world and directs Harvard’s Center for International Development, was appointed a special advisor to Annan this winter. As a consultant on the U.N.’s Millennium Development Goals, a project that aims to cut poverty in half worldwide by 2015, Sachs will spend the next year working with the secretary-general.

At Columbia’s Earth Institute, Sachs would focus on many of the same issues he has studied at Harvard and is currently working on with the U.N. Although the institute is devoted broadly to studying biological and social systems on a global scale, it focuses on the developing world and how to achieve economic growth without damaging the environment and public health—two of Sachs’ specialties.

The institute is headed by a committee of professors, currently led by Michael Crow, a university administrator who will leave Columbia to accept the presidency of Arizona State University on July 1. According to the Herald Tribune article, Sachs is being offered that leadership position.

Columbia officials, including Crow’s office and the university’s public affairs department, repeatedly refused to comment on whether Sachs was being considered for that post.

As a U.N. special advisor, Sachs will help design what officials have called the biggest international anti-poverty campaign since the Marshall Plan. He presented his most recent findings at an international conference attended by officials from dozens of countries last month in Monterrey, Mexico. Sachs has also spent the last several months working closely with the U.S. Department of State and Department of the Treasury. His work coincided with dramatic increases in international aid that the U.S. and many European countries announced last month.

In recent interviews Sachs’ colleagues have said he has strongly academic interests but focuses them on creating practical solutions to the problem of global poverty.

“What makes him unique is his capacity to combine intellect with enthusiasm for the public good,” John W. McArthur, who is Sachs’ chief research fellow, said last month.

The Center for International Development that Sachs currently heads is part of the Kennedy School of Government. Kennedy School Dean Joseph S. Nye could not be reached for comment yesterday.