Roland G. Fryer became the youngest tenured African-American Harvard University professor at the age of 30 in 2007. The Lewisville, Texas native was born June 4, 1977 in Daytona Beach, Fla.
Fryer was raised primarily in Lewisville and was a star athlete at Lewisville High School. Fryer gained an athletic scholarship to the University of Texas at Arlington, but never played for the school, instead focusing on academics. Fryer graduated magna cum laude in 1998 after two and a half years of study while working a full-time job.
In four years, Fryer earned his Ph.D. in 2002 from Penn State in Economics and completed his post-doctoral work at the University of Chicago. He joined Harvard’s Economics department at the end of a three-year fellowship and in 2011, Fryer was named a MacArthur Fellow.
Controversy followed Fryer after he was accused of sexually harassment on the job in 2018, claims that he has vehemently denied. He has apologized for his “off-color” jokes but maintains his innocence.
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