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PhD in Sustainable Development Student Profiles
Gordon McCord
Gordon McCord is a third-year student in the Ph.D. program in Sustainable Development. Gordon has varied interests, including economic growth and poverty reduction, the role of geography in economic dynamics, and the interaction of epidemiology and poverty (particularly in the case of malaria).
Before beginning the program, he worked as a special assistant to Jeffrey Sachs at the Columbia Earth Institute and at the UN Millennium Project. During those years, Gordon had the opportunity to travel all over the world supporting Prof. Sachs both in research and in working with country governments and international organizations.
With both feet firmly back on the ground, Gordon is taking advantage of the years as a student to focus on research and to enjoy New York. If you don’t find him at Uris Library staring at some economic model or another, he’ll probably be on the public tennis courts on 119th and Riverside, on the squash courts at Columbia’s gym, or on the subway’s number 7 train on his way to Queens to eat New York’s best Latin American and Indian foods.
Gordon grew up in Latin America and received his B.A. in Economics from Harvard University, where he focused on economic development and Latin American studies, and wrote an undergraduate thesis on the effects of rural road improvement on family incomes in rural Peru.
Personal webpage: www.earth.columbia.edu/people/gmccord