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Roland Gerhard Fryer Jr.American economist
Date of Birth: 04.06.1977
Country:  USA |
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Biography of Roland Gerhard Fryer Jr.
Roland Gerhard Fryer Jr. is an American economist and professor of economics at Harvard University. He has a strong interest in social and political economics and is also affiliated with the National Bureau of Economic Research and the W. E. B. Du Bois Institute for African and African-American Research. In January 2008, at the age of 30, Fryer became the youngest African-American to receive a permanent teaching contract at Harvard, granting him tenure for life. He is considered one of the rising stars at Harvard University, particularly among young African-American scholars. Over the past few years, he has published numerous economics-related works in leading academic journals.
In March 2005, "The New York Times" featured a detailed article about Roland Fryer titled "Toward a Unified Theory of Black America." The article described the harsh upbringing Fryer experienced, with his mother leaving the family when he was very young and his father, who was physically abusive, eventually being convicted of rape, leaving Fryer essentially to fend for himself. It is not surprising that in such circumstances, the young boy joined a street gang as a teenager.
Early Life and Education
Roland Fryer was born on June 4, 1977, in Daytona Beach, Florida and grew up in Lewisville, Texas, where he moved with his father at the age of four. He attended Lewisville High School and excelled in American football and basketball, which earned him an athletic scholarship to the University of Texas at Arlington. In 1998, Fryer graduated with honors from the university while also working to support himself.
In 2002, he earned a doctoral degree in economics from Pennsylvania State University and conducted research at the University of Chicago under the guidance of economist Gary Becker, a Nobel laureate. Over the past three years, Fryer has also collaborated with several other scholars, including Steven Levitt, a professor at the University of Chicago and author of "Freakonomics"; Glenn Loury, an economist from Brown University; and Edward Glaeser, an expert in urban economics from Harvard.
Career and Achievements
After completing a three-year fellowship with the Harvard Society of Fellows at the end of the 2005-2006 academic year, Fryer joined the faculty of the economics department at Harvard University as a senior lecturer. In 2005, he was also selected as one of the founding members of the Fletcher Foundation.
Recently, he has embarked on the "Opportunity NYC" project, which aims to study how students in schools with low-quality teaching respond to financial incentives. "The Economist," a prestigious economics publication, ranked Fryer 8th among the "best young economists in the world." He currently serves as the CEO of the Education Innovations Laboratory.
