According to the investigator’s report, Dr. Fryer began commenting on the woman’s sex life and suggesting that the woman was in a sexual relationship with a former manager in the lab. In June, she texted her roommate complaining that Dr. Fryer had spent 20 minutes talking about how she and the former manager were probably having sex, using a vulgarity. “Like in detail,” she wrote. “Body parts.”

A few days later, the woman went to a human resources official to complain about Dr. Fryer’s behavior. Later that month, her doctor called human resources to say her patient was in “a crisis situation,” and the woman began a disability leave. She never returned to work at the lab.

The accuser has also filed a complaint with the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination.

‘Unwelcome Conduct’

Other employees told similar stories about Dr. Fryer, both in interviews with The Times and in discussions with Harvard’s investigator.

One incident was raised in the complaint filed by the Title IX office: an episode in which a woman in the lab told a story about bending down to help an older faculty member tie his shoe. According to several witnesses cited in the investigator’s report, Dr. Fryer launched into an extended monologue implying that the woman had performed fellatio. By at least two accounts, Dr. Fryer put his foot on her desk so that his crotch was in front of her face, in view of several employees, including two other women who told the investigator they were upset by the behavior.

The investigator concluded that Dr. Fryer’s “unwelcome conduct of a sexual nature was sufficiently severe” that it interfered with the three women’s ability to work.

Dr. Fryer told the Harvard investigator that “that riff” was simply a joke and that the employee it involved was “laughing hysterically.” He questioned whether he was being singled out for scrutiny because of his race.

“Why am I the only one who violated policy when many others participated?” he asked, according to the investigator’s report. “Is it because I am the only professor or because of my skin color?”

The report responds directly to that point. The investigator, it said, was troubled that Dr. Fryer “appeared to discount the significance of his roles as a senior faculty member at the university and faculty director of EdLabs.”