Dean Larry Larson featured in Providence Business News

New Brown School of Engineering Dean Larry Larson is profiled by the Providence Business News.

Five Questions With: Larry Larson

By Kimberley Donoghue 
PBN Web Editor
Twitter: @ kdonog

COURTESY BROWN UNIVERSITY          "A GREAT UNIVERSITY thrives on the quality of its faculty, and the best faculty member is a rare combination of a brilliant and ambitious researcher and an engaged and passionate teacher," said Larry Larson, The new dean of Brown University’s School of Engineering.

Lawrence Larson became the inaugural dean of Brown University’s School of Engineering, which was approved to be elevated from a division to a school last year.

Larson, an expert in microelectronics technology and wireless communications, came to Providence from his role as the chair of the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department in the Jacobs School of Engineering at the University of California-San Diego.Last year, Larson predicted that within a decade wireless devices and sensors will be so inexpensive that they could be embedded into almost any manufactured object and located anywhere thought GPS technology in his presentation “Wireless Everywhere and in Everything.”

PBN: First of all, congratulations on your new role. How do you see your first year going? Do you feel ready for the position? Is this a big leap from your previous roles?

LARSON: Thank you! It is great to be here in Providence – after 30 years in southern California, my family and I are looking forward to the beautiful New England fall.

I’m planning to spend a lot of my first year working with everyone at Brown to build momentum for the growth of the School of Engineering. We’re trying to build a world-class research enterprise in Engineering, which builds on our historic strengths in teaching and research, and on our wonderful students.

Becoming a dean is a huge leap for anyone – there are no “dean schools” – but I’m fortunate to have a wonderful staff and amazing faculty here at Brown to help me. So far, the transition has been just great.

PBN: You’ve said that your primary goal is to recruit new faculty in cutting-edge research areas. Who’s on your dream list?

LARSON: A great university thrives on the quality of its faculty, and the best faculty member is a rare combination of a brilliant and ambitious researcher and an engaged and passionate teacher. My major goal for the next few years will be to find these special people and convince them that Brown is the place they should spend the rest of their careers. We’ll be recruiting in areas of Engineering that have special interdisciplinary connections to the rest of Brown, and are in emerging areas of key societal needs: health care, the environment, energy and entrepreneurship.

PBN: You’ve also mentioned that you’d like to expand on graduate programs and create “groundbreaking” undergraduate programs. What did you have in mind?

LARSON: Most engineers go on to do graduate work at some point in their careers – it’s almost a requirement if you want to do cutting-edge work. One of our goals in the coming years is to expand our offerings of master’s degree programs that are targeted at students who want to take this next step in their careers. At the same time we also intend to expand our Ph.D.-level research, which is a key means for creating the new knowledge and new technologies that create new jobs and benefits all of society.

Life-changing undergraduate education is the heart of Brown University. One of the things I want to expand in the coming years is undergraduate research opportunities. Brown’s undergraduates are just amazing, and I want to make sure that each of them has the opportunity to work in a professor’s lab and have a meaningful research experience.

PBN: How do you plan to lead Brown’s school through the “fundamental transformation” that engineering is undergoing as barriers between traditional disciplines meld? What’s the strategy?

LARSON: One of the reasons I was attracted to Brown is its unique collaborative and interdisciplinary culture. This culture is uniquely well suited to the changes that are going on in the world around us, where traditional barriers between disciplines are breaking down, and great new opportunities lie at the boundaries between disciplines. So, we will look for new faculty members who are well suited to thrive in this new world in which we find ourselves. We already have some great examples of faculty here in Engineering who are leading the way. For example, Professor Arto Nurmikko’s work with John Donoghue and the Warren Alpert Medical School on brain interface technologies unites the disciplines of neuroscience, engineering, biology and medicine.

PBN: Where’s the current weak spot at the school that you’d like to fix?

LARSON: I’ve been amazed by the broad strengths of the Brown program since I arrived. The engineering program at Brown is the oldest in the Ivy League and the third oldest civilian engineering program in the U.S. So, we have a rich and distinguished history. We’re really focused on making it even better and more visible, by recruiting the best faculty, expanding our educational offerings, and building a modern and expanded space for our ground-breaking research.

Meet the Faculty: Lawrence Larson

Integrated circuits, wireless communications, computer engineering — Larry Larson had a rich research background when he began taking on senior administrative responsibilities at the University of California–San Diego. The chance to be the first dean of Brown’s School of Engineering was an exciting prospect.

Larry Larson comes to Brown University as more than faculty. He comes as the founding dean of the newly created Brown School of Engineering.

Larson started as dean on July 1. After a summer on the job, he has enunciated a vision for the school: Recruit the best faculty; build modern, expanded space for research; in time, move into a new building.

“When really great people come to a place, what are they looking for?” Larson said. “They’re looking for great people to latch onto. They’re looking for space to become world leaders in research. That’s the vision I’m trying to help Brown University realize. I have bought into that.”

In a way, this is the third and final act of a distinguished career for the 53-year-old Larson. For 16 years, he worked at Hughes Research Laboratories. There, he pioneered the development of analog integrated circuits and new generations of low-noise high-electron mobility transistors (HEMTs), as well as microwave integrated circuits in SiGe HBT technology.

In a presentation late last year titled “Wireless Everywhere and in Everything,” Larson predicted that within a decade wireless devices and sensors will be so inexpensive that they can be embedded into almost any manufactured object and located almost anywhere through GPS technology. “It’s not implausible to think that pretty much everything we think about in a cell phone is going to be on something the size of the head of a pin,” he said.

After Hughes, Larson entered academia, joining the faculty at the University of California–San Diego in 1996. From 2001 to 2006, he was director of the UCSD Center for Wireless Communications. During his tenure, the center had an annual budget of approximately $2.5 million that supported 25 faculty members and approximately 45 Ph.D. students, as well as partnering with a dozen companies. He also chaired the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at UCSD’s Jacobs School of Engineering and was the first faculty member to hold the Communications Industry Chair.

Larson said he was quite comfortable at UCSD, with no plans to move, until he heard about the opening at Brown. It was the chance, he recalled, of leading a major research enterprise at an Ivy League school.

“President Simmons gave me a vision of a really excellent university that wants to grow its science research and engineering, while staying true to its excellence in education and the liberal arts,” Larson said.

He continued, “Now, I’m trying to leverage all the things I learned in research to the administrative side. I’m at the point in my life when I really want to make an impact and especially at a place like Brown.”

Although the majority of his time will be on the administrative side, Larson plans to pursue research into low-power microelectronics for brain interface applications and in health. He’s excited to work with peers such as John Donoghue in neuroscience and Arto Nurmikko in engineering, who are involved in a cutting-edge project to repair damaged signals in the human brain.

The move to the East Coast has other benefits as well. Larson’s daughter attends the Rhode Island School of Design, while his son is enrolled at Oberlin College, in Ohio. An exercise enthusiast, he and his wife are looking forward to exploring the bike and walking trails in Rhode Island.

By Richard Lewis