An esteemed professor and successful manager of an independent consulting firm, Richard “Dick” Larson has achieved much over the course of his career. From research to implementation and from leadership to teaching, Dr. Larson has been recognized for numerous accomplishments. Now retired, his contributions at 22nd Century Technologies and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology will serve as an enduring legacy.
Building Academic Foundations
Before beginning his professional career, Dr. Larson established a solid academic foundation, which culminated in his earning a Doctor of Philosophy in operations research from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1969. After receiving his doctorate, he remained at MIT on the advice of his mentor and became a professor, specializing in operations research education and its applications. During his tenure, he worked both independently and alongside doctoral students to apply operations research in real-world settings, particularly in urban contexts.
Contributions to the Field of Operations Research
While employed at MIT, Dr. Larson also served as the manager of Queues Enforth Development Inc., an independent consulting firm now known as 22nd Century Technologies. In this position, he became heavily involved with several public projects in New York City. Throughout his 40 years with the firm, Dr. Larson contributed significantly to public infrastructure in the area.
Dr. Larson is perhaps best known for developing the Hypercube Queueing Model, which stands out for its rigorous mathematical foundation. He devised the model and programmed it in the C language, developing a compression technique to rapidly process inputs from emergency response queueing systems. This system ensures that police, fire, and emergency medical systems can respond as quickly and efficiently as possible.
For his many contributions to operations research, Dr. Larson has earned several awards and accolades. Most notably, he received the Lanchester Prize for best publication on operations research for authoring “Urban Police Patrol Analysis.” He has also been honored by Marquis Who’s Who as a Top Educator. Dr. Larson attributes his success to his unwavering dedication.
A Focus on Accessible Education
Outside of his work as a professor and manager, Dr. Larson jointly founded the MIT BLOSSOMS (Blending Learning Open Source Science Or Math Studies) program alongside his now-deceased wife, Mary Elizabeth Murray, and Professor Dan Frey. The video lessons produced by BLOSSOMS, which focus on STEM (science, technology, education, and mathematics), are among the first widely distributed open-source learning repositories ever created, and each is publicly available on YouTube.
In 2023, Dr. Larson published his new book, “Model Thinking for Everyday Life: How to Make Smarter Decisions,” published by INFORMS and available on Amazon. Written during the COVID-19 pandemic, the book aims to inform the general public of the benefits of model-based thinking, and Dr. Larson considers it the best thing he has ever written. Looking forward, he aims to seize any opportunity that will allow him to leverage his expertise to benefit others.
