Michael David Fried is an American mathematician working in the geometry and arithmetic of families of nonsingular projective curve covers.
Fried received his undergraduate degree from Michigan State University in electrical engineering and then worked for three years as an aerospace electrical engineer.
He then received his PhD from University of Michigan in Mathematics in 1967 under Donald John Lewis.
[1] He spent two years as a postdoctoral researcher at the Institute for Advanced Study (1967–1969).
He was included in the inaugural (2013) class of Fellows of the American Mathematical Society.