World-famous developmental economist Jeffrey Sachs held a video conference with UW students yesterday that was sponsored by Americans for Informed Democracy (AID), a student organization that focuses on educating the public about international issues like malaria, world poverty and AIDS.

The videoconference followed the group's presentation on African development, which was featured at the beginning of this week's episode of American Idol. Sachs repeatedly referenced the broadcast in hopes of inspiring college students to press presidential candidates on the issue of world poverty.

"American Idol has mainstreamed this issue," he said. "We can make this a mainstream issue. In fact, we have to. I think a campaign is the perfect way to do this. ... We are in the middle of an election campaign."

AID Director and videoconference host Seth Green co-founded the organization while studying abroad in England in 2002. He and other students saw Europeans wearing bracelets for the One Campaign, a movement against AIDS and poverty, and were inspired to bring a similar movement to the United States.

AID chapters at Colgate University, the University of Denver and Calvin College were also present on the videoconference. However, the UW's turnout was higher than any other school's, despite there being only 25 seats available for students and faculty. More than 50 students had to be turned away due to lack of space.

Senior and event organizer Angela Ju said the UW had been awarded the opportunity to conference with Sachs after writing an essay about why the UW was best qualified to participate.

"I felt good about the event," Ju said. "I wish we'd had better video conference capabilities, but at the same time, it allowed more of the audience to ask questions."

The 90 minute video broadcast was well-received, despite sporadic voice transmission cutoffs and one 10-minute video paralysis that left Sachs' face with an encouraging closed-lipped grin pasted on the LCD screen. It was transmitted from Sachs' home computer, which he frequently uses for videoconferences, including a recent virtual meeting with students in Togo.

Sachs, who is director of the United Nations Millennium Project, president of Millennium Promise and director of Columbia University's Earth Institute, critized excessive U.S. military spending and implored audience members that America's natural role in the world be the technological problem-solver and innovator.

"If we pick peaceful problems where we can use our technology and good will, we can solve a lot of problems," he said. "If we use bombs, we're going to get a lot of problems."

Sachs' responses to questions touched on topics as wide ranging as malaria and AIDS, overfishing and the Wolfowitz World Bank scandal.

The conference ended with a hopeful Sachs making a pitch for increased interdisciplinary communication within academia.

"We need to hone our professional tools so that if sociologists, political scientists, economists and climatologists say something, we can all communicate," he said.

Reach reporter Jake Sommer at news@thedaily.washington.edu.