A Tribute to Larry Leifer (1940-2026)

It is with profound sadness that we announce the passing of Professor Emeritus Larry J. Leifer on August 29, 2026. Larry changed the way generations of engineers and designers think about their work. 

In his early days, driven by a commitment to developing and disseminating assistive device technology, Larry founded and directed the Department of Veterans Affairs' Palo Alto Rehabilitation Engineering R&D Center (1978–1989).  Later he cofounded the Tolfa Corporation (now Lingraphicare America) and Independence Works, Inc. to promote personal independence for disabled persons though assistive technology. 
At Stanford, Larry founded the Center for Design Research (CDR) in 1984, gathering colleagues from across engineering, medicine, and the humanities in a shared effort to understand and support creative technical design-team activity. Under Larry's leadership, it grew into an internationally recognized hub for the study of design teams. Larry became a foundational voice in the field, an influential figure whose reach extended globally. Until his retirement in 2022, CDR was the beating heart of his work, the place where he developed objective measures of design-team performance, studied globally distributed product development teams across campuses and industries, and mentored generations of scholars and practitioners.
Building on the results of his experimental approach to curriculum reform, Larry became the founding director of the Stanford Learning Laboratory (1997-2001), an initiative by then-Stanford President Gerhard Casper to systematically improve learning through judicious use of information and communication technology. In 2005, he was a founding member of the Hasso Plattner Institute of Design at Stanford (the d.school), alongside Professor David Kelley, co-founder of IDEO. In 2008, Larry went on to serve as Stanford Director of the Hasso Plattner Design Thinking Research Program, in partnership with the Hasso Plattner Institute in Potsdam, Germany. 

Across five decades, he wove one continuous thread: using design to expand human capability. 

Larry brought rare intellectual rigor to what many now casually call "Design Thinking," insisting always on a richer, more comprehensive view of the design process. He explored this realm not from a distance, but within it, as a creative thinker, insightful researcher, visionary, and prolific designer. 
Above all, Larry was a teacher, and it was in his advising and mentorship of students that his ideas came alive and took root in others. His teaching was full of ideas that stuck with people for life: 
"Who's your user?" pushed generations of engineers to design with empathy rather than assumption.
His "Hunter-Gatherer" metaphor gave teams a way to understand the dynamic roles people take on within high-performing design teams; and "Dance with ambiguity" captured his belief that great teams don't eliminate uncertainty, they learn to move through it with grace. 
Larry shaped students through courses ranging from his globally distributed graduate design course to a freshman introductory seminar he called "Designing the Human Experience," a title that, in many ways, described his life's work. 

What sets Larry apart was never simply his papers or his inventions, remarkable as they were. It was the generous gifts of time, attention, and energy he poured into inspiring students, colleagues, and collaborators around the world. He didn't just study how high-performing teams danced with ambiguity; he lived it, drawing out the best in people and cultivating joyful community spirit.

Larry was a singular educator, mentor, and friend, and he will be dearly missed by everyone fortunate enough to have entered his orbit.

The tribute page where you may share your fondest memories of Larry will be available soon.