LARRY BELLS' BIO
Double U of I Alumnus and Professor + UH Professor/Writer/Space Entrepreneur
University of Houston Endowed Professor of Space Architecture Larry Bell, a two-degree University of Illinois alumnus, is a globally recognized designer, recipient of high international honors, advanced technology entrepreneur, academic program founder/director, and author of numerous books and magazine features on diverse topics.
In 1962, following four years of service as a U.S. Air Force air traffic controller and one year of study at the University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee, Larry enrolled in the University of Illinois architecture program, graduating with a five-year B-Architecture degree in 1968.
While working nearly full-time and selling blood to support his undergraduate studies, Larry made time to pursue an entirely extracurricular idea involving a an ultimately patented mass transportation system concept for urban areas called “Synchroveyor.”
Having sent voluminous descriptive materials to then University of Illinois system board chairman Howard Clement, a partner at the patent law offices of Hume, Clement, Hume and Lee, the firm offered free legal services to Larry’s proposal as their selected annual charity project of merit that year.
Synchroveyor subsequently received ALCOA’s broadly publicized national design award.
Larry’s special advanced transportation activity led to his enrollment in the U of I industrial design program, and while also teaching full time in a new art and design program at Parkland College, pursued what initiated a continuing life-time passion in producing sculpture. Two of his large carved wood pieces were purchased in permanent collections of the Illinois State Museum in Springfield and the University of Illinois Krannert Center for the Performing Arts.
Immediately upon graduation with a MFA degree in Industrial Design in 1970, Larry was invited to head that same program as assistant professor – rising through the ranks to full professor in 1968.
While there, Prof. Bell served as a co-editor and regular columnist for Industrial Design Magazine, and he was also appointed to the Industrial Design Society of America (IDSA) national board of directors and executive committee.
Prof. Bell took a one-year leave of absence from the U of I to accept an invitation to head planning for a major national Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED) program sponsored by the U.S. Department of Justice based in Washington, D.C.
CPTED undertook crime prevention demonstration initiatives in Portland, Oregon, Minneapolis, Minnesota, and Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
Prof. Bell was then recruited by the University of Houston president advance research and design initiatives within the College of Architecture where he founded the Sasakawa International center for Space Architecture (SICSA) and its Space Architecture Graduate Program.
SICSA was later transferred to the UH Cullen College of Engineering where it now also offers a joint Master of Space Architecture-Aerospace Engineering degree.
Larry has secured many millions of dollars of SICSA donor and contract funds to support research, design and an academic teaching curriculum that attracts students from all over the world.
Areas of study at SICSA include planning and design of habitats, structures, and other support systems for space applications such as orbital, lunar and Mars initiatives, and they also address extreme environments on Planet Earth. Such investigations are comprehensive in nature, linking enormously diverse human and technical safety and operational influences and requirements.
While directing SICSA and teaching, Larry has also co-founded several commercial high-tech companies including one that grew through mergers and acquisitions to employ more than 8,000 professional employees, went public on the New York Stock Exchange, and was purchased by General Dynamics for $1.5 billion. The venture was co-founded by former NASA Johnson Space Center Chief Engineer Max Faget, and Apollo II astronaut Neal Armstrong along with the first two NASA JSC directors, Robert Gilruth and Kriss Kraft, served on its board.
Bell has received university, national and international honors for his aerospace work.
He was awarded special Endowed Professor of Space Architecture status through a matched financial contribution of the SpaceHab corporation and University of Houston administration.
NASA headquarters has awarded Larry/SICSA two certificates of appreciation for contributions to advanced program design.
Larry is a recipient of Japan’s Kyushu Sangyo University Space Pioner Award.
The Russian Institute of Astronautics and Cosmonautics has awarded Larry with its two highest honors: the Konstantin Tsiolkovsky gold medal for contributions to international space development; and the Yuri Gagarin Diploma for human space flight contributions, and his name, along with four others, was placed in large Russian Proton rocket that launched the first crew to the International Space Station.
Larry is a Fellow Emeritus of the invitation-only Explorers Club, an Associate Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA), and Life Member of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE).
Larry has authored more than 1,300 Forbes and Newsmax articles on diverse topics, and his work and writings have been cited in more than 1,700 professional papers and journal articles.
He has also published 12 books, including a recent one co-authored by long-time colleague and close friend Apollo II astronaut Buzz Aldrin titled Beyond Flagpoles and Footprints, Pioneering the Space Frontier.
Larry’s most recent book: Architectures Beyond Boxes and Boundaries – My Life by Design, will be followed by one in progress,MECOPTICS, a comprehensive discussion of currently available energy sources, their applications, capacities and limitations.
At age 86, Larry still teaches at SICSA, writes a 3-times weekly Newsmax column, appears on at least weekly media interviews, and continues to pursue his sculpture passion, albeit small pieces that don’t require strength of lost youth.