Larry Bell is a Professor of Architecture at the University of Houston where he is also the founder and director of the Sasakawa International Center for Space Architecture (SICSA). SICSA was established in 1987 with support from a multi-million dollar gift that Larry secured from a Japanese philanthropic organization.

Larry and three partners co-founded Space Industries International (SII) in 1982. That company has grown to employ approximately 6,000 as a result of various mergers and acquisitions. The present company, Veridian, is now listed on the New York Stock Exchange, with annual revenues of nearly one billion dollars.

Larry was a principal and partner in Bell and Trotti, Inc. a consulting design and fabrication company that had key roles with the NASA Johnson Space Center, Boeing, Martin Marietta, Grumman and ILC Space Systems during early phases of International Space Station planning and development. In 1992 he and three other partners created International Space Enterprises (ISE), a San Diego-based commercial space company that designed and built telerobotic rovers similar to the one that was sent to Mars. The company now develops advanced hybrid-electric vehicles, including public buses for the City of Los Angeles, airline tow vehicles and mid-range trucks through a subsidiary organization.

Larry also co-founded other commercial space organizations. US Russian Telecommunications (USRT) put together a multi-billion satellite telecommunications deal involving the Government of Russia and other international entities. Globus Space, Inc. arranged to put a 30 ft. tall Pizza Hut logo on the Russian Proton rocket that launched the first habitable element of the International Space Station (the Service Module) to orbit.

Larry serves on the Board of Directors and Executive Committee of Space Week International, a space advocacy organization which is endorsed by the United Nations. He is an Associate Fellow of the American Society of Aeronautics and Astronautics, and is also a Fellow of the prestigious Explorers Club.

Larry is a recipient of national and international honors which recognize his contributions to space design and development. Included are two certificates of appreciation and achievement from NASA, and two of the three highest honors awarded by the Federation of Astronautics and Cosmonautics of the former USSR: the Yuri Gagarin Diploma, and the Konstantin Tsiolkovsky Gold Medal. Final Frontier Magazine selected him as one of the “Magnificent Seven of Space”. Larry’s name was put in large letters along with four other individuals on the Proton rocket that carried the first crew to the International Space Station.