A. Roberto Frisancho is a biological anthropologist whose research currently encompasses these areas: (1) the development of anthropometric references for the evaluation of growth and nutritional status of children and adults. He is currently working on the second edition of the anthropometric standards; (2) the determination of the developmental components of respiratory adaptation to high altitude hypoxia. For this purpose, he and his colleagues from the Bolivian Institute of High Altitude are studying the respiratory characteristics of Western Sea Level children growing up in La Paz, Bolivia (13,000 Ft.); (3) the biological and environmental components of blood pressure variability among Blacks; (4) the role of nutrition and diet on the evolution of biological traits of humans; and (5) determining the role of undernutrition on the development of obesity.

Roberto Frisancho was the recipient of the LS&A Excellence in Education Award for years 1996, 1997 and 1998. He also received the Amoco Distinguished Faculty Achievement Award in 1997. In 1999 he was named the Arthur A. Thurnau Professor of Anthropology for his distinguished teaching record.

Frisancho was invited to give the "Charla Magistral Honorifica" at the Ecuatorian and Latin Congress of Nutrition, organized by the Catholic University of San Francisco in Quito, Ecuador. He also gave the 2002 Keynote Lecture at the First International Meeting of the Economic and Human Biology Association, Tubigen, Germany.