In the 1960s and 1970s, she attended the University of Guam to study for her Bachelor's and master's degrees and while there she also worked in the local Marine Laboratory.
She gained a PhD in Zoology from the University of Queensland and her thesis was A revision of the gobiid fish genus Mugilogobius (Teleostei: Gobioidei), and its systematic placement.
[2] She moved from Guam in 1974 to work with Douglass F. Hoese at the Australian Museum in Sydney as a Technical Officer[2] and in 1981 she took a position as Curator of Fishes at the Museum and Art Gallery Northern Territory in Darwin.
[2] Her main interests were in the fishes of the Indo-Pacific, especially the Gobiiformes and she is the author or co-author of over 120 papers.
[1] As well as gobies Larson's interests include river sharks, freshwater hardyheads, freshwater grunters, damsel fishes and mackerel emperors,[2] and birdwatching.