Dr. Larson's recent book is "Model Thinking For Everyday Life, How to Make Smarter Decisions," published by INFORMS in 2023. The book has won praise from academics and practitioners alike.
LEXINGTON, MA, June 28, 2024 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Richard "Dick" Larson of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology was selected by Marquis Who's Who for a prominent feature in the New England Edition of The Wall Street Journal on June 27, 2024.
Best known for his contributions to the field of operations research (OR), Dr. Larson has enjoyed a fulfilling career for more than five decades, much of which he has spent as a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Initially joining the faculty in 1969, he has gone on to hold numerous positions of high leadership at the university, including as director of the Center for Advanced Educational Services between 1995 and 2003. Having earned post-tenure status in 2019, Dr. Larson continues to serve as principal investigator for the MIT BLOSSOMS ("Blended Learning Open Source Science Or Math Studies") initiative, a program that has sought to create and distribute video lessons on mathematics and science for students across the globe. Touted as one of the first widely distributed open-source learning repositories, many BLOSSOMS videos can be reviewed online on YouTube.
Over the course of his career, Dr. Larson has focused much of his research on the subject of urban systems – particularly concerning the effectiveness and efficiency of emergency services. Having initially studied police and other emergency dispatch systems on behalf of the RAND Corporation, he went on to publish a number of scientific papers and works related to the subject, including "Urban Operations Research," a research textbook he wrote in collaboration with Amedeo R. Odoni. Dr. Larson's research yielded notable advances in the areas of geometrical probability and queuing theory, leading to such pioneering concepts as the Queue Inference Engine and the Hypercube Queueing Model, the latter of which has stood out for its rigorous mathematical foundation and high level of citation by both colleagues and media organizations alike.
In addition to his work at MIT, Dr. Larson managed an independent applied research and consulting firm, where he sought to put his research into practice for over 40 years. Beginning as a nonprofit organization, the corporation has been acquired several times throughout its existence, becoming Queues Enforth Development in 1990 and joining the portfolio of 22nd Century Technologies in 2023. Dr. Larson also served as the president of the Operations Research Society of America for two separate terms between 1993 and 1994 and in 2005, after which the organization merged with the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS), where he was named a founding fellow in 2002. Likewise, he is an elected member of the National Academy of Engineering.
Dr. Larson studied electrical engineering at MIT throughout the 1960s, earning a Bachelor of Science in 1965, a Master of Science in 1967 and a Doctor of Philosophy in 1969. Notably, his thesis led him to write "Urban Police Patrol Analysis," a report on mathematical models for patrol operations, resource allocation, and various functions of police emergency response systems that remain in use by the U.S. Department of Justice.
"Urban Police Patrol Analysis" earned Dr. Larson the Frederick W. Lanchester Prize from the Operations Research Society of America in 1972. Other accolades to his credit include the George E. Kimball Medal in 2002, the INFORMS President's Award in 2003, and the Daniel Berg Lifetime Achievement Medal, a high honor from the International Academy of Information Technology and Quantitative Management that he received in 2017.
Dr. Larson's recent book is "Model Thinking For Everyday Life, How to Make Smarter Decisions," published by INFORMS in 2023. The book has won praise from academics and practitioners alike. Looking ahead, Dr. Larson aspires to secure the publication of new research through popular booksellers like Barnes & Noble and continue educating the general public on the benefits of model-based analysis.
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