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Ron Larsen, dean of the School of Information Sciences
since July 2002, calls himself a technologist.
“Most of my career has been spent either developing
technological solutions to specific systems-level problems,
when such solutions have been within my own grasp, or
organizing larger programs of research and development
to address problems that are beyond the capacity of any
single individual,” Larsen said.
His research interests include digital libraries, interoperability,
scalability, cross-lingual information retrieval, location-aware
computing, mobile computing, computer and network performance
analysis, and performance metrics for digital libraries.
He began his career at NASA as a programmer of real-time
mission support systems for the Apollo program. Larsen
went on to develop NASA’s research program in computer
science before moving on to the University of Maryland
to serve as assistant vice chancellor for computing. At
Maryland, he assumed responsibility for planning and coordinating
the development of the administrative and academic computing
infrastructure. He also was responsible for advancing
the university’s networking facilities among its
campuses across Maryland.
In 1988, Larsen accepted a position as associate director
of Information Technology for University Libraries at
Maryland, with responsibility for developing a networked
library information system to support the university’s
13 campuses and laboratories. Concurrently, he helped
organize Maryland’s public information network,
known as Sailor, a project that continues today. He also
was one of the original organizers of the Coalition for
Networked Information, a membership organization of educational
and industrial institutions committed to the development
of a global information infrastructure.
Larsen moved to the Department of Defense’s Advanced
Research Projects Agency (DARPA) in 1996, serving first
as program manager for information management and digital
libraries and, shortly thereafter, as assistant director
of the Information Technology Office. He left DARPA in
1999 to become director of the Maryland Applied Information
Technology Initiative, a consortium of 10 Maryland universities
focusing on the region’s workforce needs for information
technology professionals.
Larsen earned the Bachelor of Science degree in engineering
sciences at Purdue University in 1968, the Master of Science
degree in applied physics at the Catholic University of
America in 1971, and the Ph.D. degree in computer science
at the University of Maryland, College Park, in 1981.
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