Obituary - Dr. Robert E Larson

Dr. Robert E Larson, founding president of the US-China Green Energy Council (UCGEC) and former president of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), passed away peacefully at his home in California on Mar.10th 2022. He was 83.

Dr. Larson obtained his B.S. from M.I.T, M.S. and Ph.D. from Stanford, all in Electrical Engineering. He had a stellar career in computer and electronics industry. He was co-founder, President and CEO of Systems Control, prior to its sale to British Petroleum. As the president of IEEE, the largest professional society of electrical engineers and computer scientists in the world, he visited China in 1980, the first of many times to come. During that visit, he met with Mr. Jiang Zemin, who later became the President of China, in the Ministry of Electronics. The outcome of that meeting was that China received technology transfer in the power grid control, monitoring and data collection, which is still being used in China today. In the 1990s, President Jiang invited Dr. Larson to help the Development Research Center of the State Council of China to develop privatization model in various industries and sectors. Dr. Larson worked for IBM, Hughes Aircraft and SRI International. He has been a General Partner of the Woodside Fund, a venture capital firm based in the Silicon Valley of Northern California, since 1983.

Dr. Larson was the president of UCGEC at its founding in 2008. Along with the then Chairman of UCGEC, Robert S. Wu, Dr. Larson had joined forces to push forward the extensive and practical collaboration between US and China in green energy development and response to climate change. He had been appointed multiple times as the co-chair of US-China Green Energy Summit and visited China multiple times to promote the international collaboration in clean energy technology development.

Dr. Larson had been a suave gentleman all his life with distinguished achievements and devotion to the younger generation. His contribution in the US-China collaboration was priceless. He was a role model to not only his peers, but also to the next generation. His voice and smile will always remain in our hearts.

May he rest in peace!

US-China Green Energy Council
March 21, 2022

The memorial service for Dr. Robert E Larson will be held in Bridges Community Church at 10AM PST, August 20th, 2022. (Address: 625 Magdalena Ave, Los Altos, CA)