Michael Larsen received a B.A. in Mathematics from Harvard College (1984) and a Ph. D. in Mathematics from Princeton University (1988). He was a member of the Institute for Advanced Study (1988-1990) and served on the faculty at the University of Pennsylvania (1990-1997) and the University of Missouri (1997-1998), before coming to Bloomington in 1998.

Professor Larsen works in algebra in the broad sense: number theory, group theory, algebraic geometry, homological algebra, combinatorics, and applied algebra.