About Roland Fryer
Roland Gerhard Fryer Jr. (born June 4, 1977) is an American economist and professor at Harvard University. Fryer joined the faculty of Harvard University and rapidly rose through the academic ranks; in 2007, at age 30, he became one of the youngest professors (economists Jeffrey Sachs and Lawrence H. Summers both received tenure at 28), and the youngest African American, ever to be awarded tenure at Harvard. He has received numerous awards, including a MacArthur "Genius" Fellowship in 2011 and the John Bates Clark Medal in 2015 -- the field of economics' highest award second only to the Nobel Prize. Fryer has led research on social issues including social image and segregation, race and ethnicity, and the U.S. racial achievement gap. In 2019, he published an analysis arguing that Black and Hispanic Americans were no more likely than white Americans to be shot by police in a given interaction with police. In 2005, Fryer was also selected as one of the first Fletcher Foundation Fellows. In 2007, at age 30, he became one of the youngest professors, and youngest African American, to ever receive tenure at Harvard (Noam Elkies was 26).
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