BOSTON — Roland Fryer Jr., a celebrated Harvard University economics professor, will be suspended two years and see the research lab he oversees shut down permanently in response to multiple allegations of sexual harassment.

Harvard on Wednesday announced the unpaid administrative leave and a series of other sanctions – including the closing of the Education Innovation Laboratory or EdLabs, the site of many of the harassment allegations.

A review of formal allegations concluded that Fryer engaged in "unwelcome sexual conduct toward several individuals, resulting in the creation of a hostile work environment over the course of several years," wrote Claudine Gay, dean of the university's Faculty of Arts and Science (FAS), to the economics department.

"In short, Professor Fryer exhibited a pattern of behavior that failed to meet expectations of conduct within our community and was harmful to the well-being of its members," Gay said. "I was particularly upset to learn of the ways in which EdLabs members have been impacted, both personally and professionally. The totality of these behaviors is a clear violation of institutional norms and a betrayal of the trust of the FAS community."

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The announcement comes more than a year after the first of multiple Title IX investigations into Fryer's behavior was launched by Harvard's Office for Dispute Resolution after one of his former employees at EdLabs, which he founded, named him in a complaint. Some of the allegations from women go back a decade.

During Fryer's two-year suspension he won't be permitted to teach, advise or conduct research involving Harvard resources.

If he returns, Gay said he will face restrictions: He won't have advising or supervisory roles at Harvard; He will be allowed to teach undergraduate courses, but subject to monitoring by a Title IX-trained individual and and without access to graduate teaching fellows; He will be able to teach graduate classes but not graduate workshops.

"At the end of those two years, I will decide whether to restore some or all of these privileges," she said.

Fryer, 42, did not respond to an email seeking comment on Harvard's decision.

However, in a 2018 letter to the editor to the New York Times, Fryer apologized for making "off-color jokes" around lab employees and commented on their dating lives.

"If anyone who worked at the lab ever felt alienated, confused or offended by the environment, I sincerely apologize," he wrote. But he rejected any allegation that he is "against women" or retaliated against employees.

The letter was in response to a Times report on a university investigation that concluded Fryer committed unwelcome conduct on seven occasions that violated university policy. The Times cited interviews of Fryer's former employees, who characterized him as "a bully," and the lab as a place where "sexual jokes and comments were routine, and where employees were expected to laugh along with the group or risk being isolated."

Fryer sent unwanted after-hour texts, one woman alleged in a complaint, that "quickly veered into flirtatious and sexual overtures," The Times reported. The woman started visiting his apartment after starting at EdLabs at age 23. One time Fryer complained that she left too early, according to The Times. One text he sent to her read, "“Ur lucky ur not here. I would either tackle, bite u or both.

The Harvard Crimson, the university's student-run newspaper, was the first to report on the sexual harassment allegations against Fryer last year.

One of the complaints alleged Fryer committed “egregious” acts of verbal sexual harassment, the newspaper reported. The woman accused Fryer of speaking about sex in the workplace, making “sexually inappropriate comments” to and about employees and others. She also said he “objectified and sexualized” women, including female staffers.

The lab's stated mission was conducting economics research "devoted to closing the racial achievement gap."

Fryer is considered one of the leading African-American economists in a field where minorities have historically lagged in representation. He's received the MacArthur "Genius" Fellowship and the John Bates Clark Medal, given by the American Economic Association to the best American economist under age 40, which is considered the second-highest honor in the field behind the Nobel price.

His ascendance from a humble upbringing – "From the hood to Harvard," The Economist wrote in 2015 – has been the subject of many stories.

At 30 years old, Fryer was the youngest African-American to receive tenure at Harvard. The New York Times reported Fryer is also among the highest-paid employees at Harvard, earning a salary of more than $600,000 in 2016, according to tax filings.

"Before coming to Harvard, Fryer worked at McDonald's (drive-thru, not corporate)," says Fryer's profile page on Harvard's website.

Fryer is known for his work on education, inequality, and race, his profile page reads.

Among his most controversial papers: a study that concluded there's no racial bias in shootings by police.

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Harvard's actions against Fryer come after the university in May barred prominent former government professor Jorge Dominguez from its campus and stripped him of his emeritus status after an investigation found repeated "unwelcome sexual conduct" targeting multiple students and faculty over four decades.

Reach Joey Garrison on Twitter @joeygarrison.