LEXINGTON, MA, UNITED STATES, September 6, 2024 /EINPresswire.com/ -- “Operations research is the world’s most important, invisible profession,” explains our guest. Richard Larson, who has worked in this very unique field, now makes it his mission to educate others about it. This is his story.

Richard Larson has been an operations researcher for over five decades. In addition, he also describes himself as an “MIT Lifer.” In other words, besides being an alumnus of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), he also is a tenured professor at MIT.

According to Brittanica, operations research (OR) is the “application of scientific methods to the management and administration of organized military, governmental, commercial, and industrial processes.”

“It’s bringing the scientific method to the world in which we live,” corroborates Richard.

With a physicist mindset, Richard offers a model-based thinking approach in how we can improve our daily lives. With his specialty focusing on queueing systems, Richard earned the nickname “Dr. Queue”.

“My original career path was to focus on electrical engineering and computer science,” recalls Richard. “I had Professor Alvin Drake as my advisor. He happened to be co-director of the operations research center. However, I didn’t know at the time what operations research was, but I did get fascinated by it. My first year as a graduate, I was the indirect victim of a crime, which resulted in research for academic credit. I studied operations research in reference to urban police patrol and analysis. Due to my work, at the age of 23, I was asked to join the science and technology task force of The President’s Crime Commission at the Institute for Defense Analysis in Alexandria, Virginia. As they say, the rest is history. I have been involved in operations research in a wide variety of areas.”

“While operations researchers have had major impact in the private sector, there are many like myself that have made an impact in the public sector,” notes Richard. “Many years back I did a lot of work in New York City. More specifically, I implemented operations research strategies in the emergency services area – most notably the 911 system that the city had recently implemented.” Richard accomplished that by improving their queueing system, which ultimately improved the response time of the corresponding emergency services.

With all of his accomplishments in the urban setting, he neither considers himself an efficiency expert nor an urban planner. Richard believes that an operations researcher, in contrast to an efficiency expert, utilizes the perspective of improving equity for those in a city. Unlike an urban planner, an operations researcher offers a boots-on-the-ground approach. “What I do contributes to the planning, design, and operation of cities,” clarifies Richard.

His knowledge and expertise have manifested itself in his most recent book, Model Thinking for Everyday Life. Released in 2023, Richard explains that his book “provides the vehicle to discuss what operations research is, and how it applies to all of us.”

As for the future, Richard plans to further disseminate the idea of model-based thinking to the broad community. Also, due to the success of his book, he has been invited to make presentations about operations research and model-based thinking and continues to do so. “My objective is to let these concepts permeate society,” declares Richard.

“With operations research, lives can literally be saved,” concludes Richard. “The process is straightforward to describe but implementing it properly and correctly is involved. It requires a lot of attention to detail and a lot of input from various resources. You need to have boots on the ground.”

Close Up Radio will feature Richard Larson in an interview with Jim Masters on Thursday August 1st at 10am Eastern

Listen to the show on BlogTalkRadio

If you have any questions for our guest, please call (347) 996-3389

You may purchase Richard Larson’s most recent book Model Thinking for Everyday Life on Amazon

Lou Ceparano
Close Up Television & Radio
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