Richard C. Larson
Born
Richard Charles Larson

1943 (age 80–81)
Bayside, Queens, New York City, New York, U.S.
NationalityAmerican
Alma materMassachusetts Institute of Technology (S.B., S.M., PhD)
Spouse
Susan Jean Wheeler
​
(m. 1969)​
Awards
Scientific career
InstitutionsMassachusetts Institute of Technology
ThesisModels for the Allocation of Urban Police Patrol Forces (1969)
Doctoral studentsKent W. Colton
Maia Majumder
WebsiteMIT profile

Richard "Dick" Charles Larson[1] (born 1943) is an American operations researcher and educator. Since 1969, he has been a faculty member at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with various appointments in the Departments of Electrical Engineering, Urban Studies and Planning, and the Institute for Data, Systems, and Society (IDSS). Larson is currently Post-Tenure Mitsui Professor of Data, Systems, and Society.[2]

Early life

Richard Charles Larson was born in 1943 in Bayside, Queens, New York City to Gilbert C. Larson.[3][4][5] Larson moved to Sunbury, Pennsylvania at the age of five. Six years later, he moved to North Plainfield, New Jersey. After graduating from Needham High School, Larson received his Bachelor of Science in 1965, Master of Science in 1967, and PhD in 1969, all in Electrical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.[3][5]

Career

Larson's primary area of research is in urban systems, especially on the effectiveness and efficiency of urban emergency services. Beginning in the late 1960s under the auspices of the RAND Corporation, he studied police and other emergency services dispatch systems in New York City, resulting in a number of papers.[6]

Later, Larson has shifted his research focus to technology-enabled learning. In 1995, became the Director of MIT's Center for Advanced Educational Services, which sought to use technology to provide educational content to a much wider audience. He held this role until 2003.[3][2]

Larson currently serves as the Principal Investigator of the MIT BLOSSOMS initiative, which creates and distributes video lessons covering topics in math and science to students around the world.[2] In addition, he is the Founder and Director of Learning International Networks Coalition, a professional society for utilizing technology to deliver quality education at scale.[2]

As "Doctor Queue", Larson is frequently cited as an expert on queuing theory and the psychology of waiting in lines. He has appeared on National Public Radio and the Washington Post, among others.[1][7]

Larson served as president of the Operations Research Society of America from 1993 to 1994, and then again in 2005 after it merged with the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS). He was named a founding fellow of INFORMS in 2002.[2] Larson currently serves as chairman of Structured Decisions Corporation (formerly QED).[8][9]

Larson was elected a member of the National Academy of Engineering in 1993 for "developing and applying operations research methodologies in public and private-sector service industries".[10]

Personal life

Larson married Susan Jean Wheeler at the MIT Chapel in 1969.[4]

Publications

  • Richard C. Larson, Urban Police Patrol Analysis, MIT Press, August 1972, 289 pages (ISBN 978-0-2621-2052-4).
  • Richard C. Larson, Amedeo R. Odoni, Urban Operations Research, Prentice Hall, 1981, 573 pages, (ISBN 978-0-1393-9447-8).

Awards

References

  1. 1 2 "'Dr. Queue' Helps You Avoid Rage in Line". National Public Radio. November 24, 2009. Retrieved June 19, 2021.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 "Richard Larson". idss.mit.edu. Retrieved June 18, 2021.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Richard C. Larson". INFORMS. Retrieved June 19, 2021.
  4. 1 2 "Susan Wheeler weds Mr. Larson". The Boston Globe. July 6, 1969. Retrieved June 18, 2021 – via Newspapers.com. Open access icon
  5. 1 2 "Richard Larson '65, SM '67, PhD '69". infinite.mit.edu. Retrieved June 19, 2021.
  6. ↑ "Richard C. Larson". Rand Corporation. Retrieved June 19, 2021.
  7. ↑ Swanson, Ana (November 27, 2015). "What really drives you crazy about waiting in line (it actually isn't the wait at all". The Washington Post. Retrieved June 19, 2021.
  8. ↑ "About Us". Structured Decisions Corporation. Retrieved June 19, 2021.
  9. ↑ "Companies are moving on the idea of queue management". Times Leader. November 23, 1992. p. 5B. Retrieved June 19, 2021 – via Newspapers.com. Open access icon
  10. ↑ "Dr. Richard C. Larson". National Academy of Engineering. Retrieved July 2, 2021.
  11. ↑ "Richard C. Larson". INFORMS. Retrieved June 19, 2021.
  12. ↑ "RICHARD LARSON RECEIVES DANIEL BERG LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT MEDAL". idss.mit.edu. December 22, 2017. Retrieved June 19, 2021.
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