Education is a very powerful tool. It is a fundamental necessity for every individual. All people whether rich or poor must never be deprived of education. It helps to reduce gender inequality and empowers individuals to live a healthy and good life. Additionally, better education paves the way for various employment options. If you get the right mentorship and guidance, studies turn out to be interesting. Many mentors devote their lives to the teaching field and work as professors.
One such personality who has changed the education system with his immense hard work and guidance is none other than Richard Larson. He has dedicated 55 years of his life to working as a professor at MIT. Along with his journey working as a professor, he is also a renowned writer.
Co-author and editor of six books and author of more than 175 scientific books. Go through this article to learn more about his life journey, academic experiences and how he devoted his entire life towards impacting young hearts.
About Dr Richard Larson
Professor Richard is an operations research specialist and an American Engineer. He is well known for his outstanding contributions in the fields of disaster planning, pandemics, urban service systems, logistics, smart-energy houses, workforce planning and technology-enabled education.
Larson’s Early Life and Education
Retd. Professor Larson was born in New York City at Bayside Queens, in 1943. Later, at the age of 5, he moved to Pennsylvania and later shifted to North Plainfield, New Jersey.
However, after graduating from Needham High School, Larson went to MIT and completed his Bachelor’s in science followed by a Master’s in Science and then PHD in electrical engineering.
Professor Larson’s distinguished Career in Education and Research
While studying in school, Larson discovered his love for physics. As the subject involved few easy-to-learn techniques and skills. He disliked Chemistry but on the other hand, Biology seemed a bit challenging for him. The reason is memorizing many minute details surrounding the topic. As a libertarian type of person,
Larson didn’t want to turn out traditional physicist since that would require a dedicated life as an accomplished physicist. All this would only limit his ideas in the field of research, teaching and advising. Additionally, Larson viewed his career goals as transitioning repeatedly on a bridge across the traditional academic disciplines, which he branded as silos.
Richard Larson’s Life as an MIT Professor
Working as a professor at MIT his personal discipline can be seen by the fact that he has to teach five different home academic departments. He started in Electrical Engineering and ended up with “inter-departments” like MIT’s IDSS, and Institute for Data, Systems and Society.
At the age of 18, when he started applying to colleges and universities, Richard was a student at Needham High School, Needham Massachusetts. His school was at a distance of thirty minutes’ drive from MIT in Cambridge. Needham High School was situated amid beautiful hills overlooking parts of the town. Both the teachers, staffs and students were equally adorable.
When Richard’s mother handed him his acceptance letter in the backyard of his present school, he was literally in a state of shock and thought that it was a huge mistake. Thinking as it was some error he decided to wait for the next day to see if MIT sent him a correction. Later, he was told by the MIT staff that every third student thought it was a blunder but it is a real phenomenon and the best example of “Groucho Marx Syndrome”.
Richard is proud of pursuing his passion. He understands the importance of Education and that it is one of the world’s best and greatest investments that never goes to waste. It is like a breathtaking ladder from one place upwards that will land on wonderful new destinations. He was of the belief that, unlike a physical asset, nobody can’t ever take anyone’s education away from you!
A Memorable moment that describes the impact of Richard’s teaching or mentorship on a student’s life
Richard remembers a beautiful moment when a student came to his office and said
he was planning to drop out of my class. The reason was his low grade on the recent exam. During that time both parties would get into serious focused discussions. Richard used to console the student finding the commitment to the topics of the class. By providing the right mentorship and guidance Richard turned several students into A” grade toppers.
Professor Larson’s Greatest Achievements
Richard Larson served as the president of ORSA, (Operations Research Society of America in 1993-1994. In 2005, he also worked as past president of INFORMS at the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences. For over 15 years, he worked as co-director of the MIT Operations Research Center.
Prof. Larson has also worked as a principal investigator of the MIT BLOSSOMS Initiative. Busy in doing active research, especially on topics like control of COVID-19 and analyzing proposed major structural changes in the US education system and how Operations Research can provide insights into the monitoring.
Teaching philosophies and approaches that remained constant in Professor Richard’s Career
Regardless of changes in curriculum, platforms, or trends, Richard’s constant focus is always on trying to engage students. It is a very easy task for him to teach topics from Operations Research (OR). Larson describes OR as the world’s most important invisible profession. Other similar examples that he mentioned that are relatively easy to teach are Airline Scheduling and Queuing.
Professor Richard’s views on the definition of a “Visionary Leader” shaping the future of Education
Professor Richard says that the definition of a visionary leader is someone who educates their students to become model citizens and critical thinkers for the rest of their lives. He supports the pupils who always ask questions and doubts, are curious to learn about new things and try to learn something every day.
Someone who does not suggest following the crowd blindly. Instead, such visionary leaders often chart new paths, sometimes risky, for others to follow at a later time.
Larson’s Legacy as a Mentor and Role Model for Future Educators and Changemakers
Professor Richard says that he wants to be remembered as someone who loved his work. Rather not just view it as a mere work and student-teacher relationship. Further, he wants himself to be pictured as a person who tried to add value to the OR profession regularly.
Someone helping to redefine the field. Also, as a valued person whose graduate students went off into the world and had successful careers in academia, industry and government.
Awards and medals won by Professor Richard Larson during his Work Career
Professor Richard’s first book “ Urban Police Patrol Analysis” (MIT Press, 1972)” won the Lanchester’s Award. He was honoured with Best-Paper-of-the-Year awards: These awards were given to Larson for publishing two best papers “Modeling the Effects of H1N1 Influenza Vaccine Distribution in the U.S.” with his co-student Anna Teytelman.
Later in 2012, he received the Value in Health, 2012 and “STEM crisis or STEM surplus? Yes and yes” with co-student Ms. Yi Xue. However, in the year 2015, Richard was bestowed with the Lawrence M. Klein Award by the US Department of Labor and featured in the New York Times.
“Shaping Critical Thinkers: The Vision of a Leader in Education.”
“55 Years at MIT: A Legacy of Inspiring Minds and Securing their Future.
“Beyond the Silos: Richard Larson’s Vision for a Connected and Empowered Future Through Education.”
Professor Larson: Bridging the Gap Between Theory and Application.
Dr.Richard Larson: Igniting Curiosity, Fostering Success.
The Power of Guidance: Larson’s Impact on Countless Lives.
