Roberto Fernandez

Roberto Fernandez

he/him
Sloan School of Management
Deep understanding

Roberto Fernandez is the William F. Pounds Professor of Organization Studies at the MIT Sloan School of Management as well as the Co-Director of Economic Sociology PhD Program. His research focuses on organizations, social networks, and race and gender stratification. He has extensive experience doing field research in organizations, and he currently focuses on the organizational processes surrounding the hiring of new talent. 

Fernandez has been selected as a recipient of the Committed to Caring award for 2023-2025. Fernandez’s arguably most significant contribution is his understanding of students and role as both a professor and a friend. 

Fernandez describes himself as a “full-service professor”. He tries to attend to differing needs and circumstances of students and the situations they find themselves in, offering advice and consolation.

Understanding

Fernandez is very understanding of his students, and is happy to speak to them about academic and personal problems alike. He acknowledges that each student comes from a different background with individual experiences; and Fernandez attempts to accommodate each one in an ideal manner.

He advises in a way that respects a student’s personal life, but still expects a reasonable amount of produced work that motivates the student, allows for them to excel, and keeps them to a high standard. 

Fernandez said, “It is just my sense of duty to pay forward how my mentors treated me. I feel like I would dishonor their work if I were not to pass it on.”

Professor and Friend

A nominator shared that Fernandez serves as both a professor and a friend. He has gone out of his way to check in and chat with them. They said that Fernandez is the only professor that has taken the time to truly get to know their story, and Fernandez speaks to students like an equal.

The nominator noted that many people at MIT enjoy a high level of privilege. Despite the differences in their circumstances, however, the nominator feels comfortable talking to Fernandez.

Happily, the professor continued to touch base with the nominator long after their class had finished, and he is the one person who really made them feel like MIT was their home. This experience stood out as unique for the nominator, and played a large role in their experience.

In addition to providing genuine connections, Fernandez advises incoming graduate students about the need for a mindset shift. Graduate school is not like undergrad. Being an excellent student is necessary, but it is not sufficient to succeed in a PhD program. Excellent undergraduate students are consumers of knowledge; on the other hand, excellent graduate students are producers of knowledge.

Fernandez says “I have never forgotten how hard developing as a scholar can be. A little support goes a long way. Life is too short to have “drive-by” connections with students.”

The nominator enthused, “[Fernandez] really went above and beyond, and this means a lot”.