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.
[4][12] 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".
He also 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.
[5] 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.
He and his late wife, Mary Elizabeth Murray, used to jointly give invited seminars on the MIT BLOSSOMS program in various countries throughout the world.