Mitsui Professor of Engineering Systems 
Director, Center for Engineering Systems Fundamentals
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
S.B., Electrical Engineering, MIT
S.M., Electrical Engineering, MIT
Ph.D., Electrical Engineering, MIT
E-mail: rclarson <at> mit <dot> edu
From 1995 to mid 2003, Dr. Larson served as Director of MIT’s CAES, Center for Advanced Educational Services. Dr. Larson’s position at CAES focused on bringing technology-enabled learning to students living on the traditional campus and to those living and working far from the university, perhaps on different continents. During the years 1995 – 1999 he built the center from two to seven business units, encompassing MIT’s production and R&D capabilities in educational technologies and its two major lifelong learning academic programs. He has been invited to give lectures on the future of technology-enabled education in testimony before the House Committee on Science (Washington, D.C.) and in North and South America, Asia, Africa and Europe. He served as Principal Investigator of several of MIT’s most ambitious technology-enabled learning programs, including PIVoT — the web-based the Physics Interactive Video Tutor. He was founder, with Glenn Strehle, of MIT World. He is founding Director of LINC, Learning International Networks Consortium, an MIT-based international project that has held four international symposia and sponsored a number of initiatives in Africa, China and the Middle East. He recently started LINC’s newest and largest initiative, BLOSSOMS, Blended Learning Open Source Science or Math Studies — sponsored by the Hewlett Foundation with additional support from the Sloan Foundation, the Lord Foundation and the Lounsbery Foundation. On behalf of LINC, his recent foreign trips have been to China, Japan, Senegal, Iran, Indonesia, Algeria, Pakistan, Jordan, Kuwait and the UAE. From 1999 through 2004, Dr. Larson served as founding co-director of the Forum the Internet and the University — a not-for-profit organization affiliated with the Forum for the Future of Higher Education.
Related websites:
MIT BLOSSOMS- Math and Science Video Lessons for High School Classes
URL: http://blossoms.mit.edu/
MIT Learning International Networks Consortium (LINC)
URL: http://linc.mit.edu/
Selected publications:
Finkelstein SN, Hedberg KJ, Hopkins JA, Hashmi S, & Larson RC (2011). Vaccine availability in the United States during the 2009 H1N1 outbreak. Am J Dis Med 6 (1), 23-30. Link to Journal
Larson RC and Murray ME (April 2008). Distance Learning as a Tool for Poverty Reduction and Economic Development: A Focus on China and Mexico. Journal of Science Education and Technology 17 (2), 175 – 196. DOI: 10.1007/s10956-007-9059-1 Link to Journal
Larson RC and Murray ME (February 2008). Open Educational Resources for Blended Learning in High Schools: Overcoming Impediments in Developing Countries. Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks 12 (1). Link to Journal
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