Dr. Nelson has served in numerous roles throughout ERDC including as the CERL technical director for Infrastructure Science and Engineering, director of the ERDC International Research Office, which is based in London, and chief of the CERL Energy Branch. He began his career as a research physicist at CERL, with a diverse research portfolio including energy efficient mitigation of biological particulate contamination in indoor air, quantification and atmospheric impacts of the biogeochemical nitrogen cycle and water purification/treatment for contingency operations. In addition to these permanent assignments, he completed a one-year assignment as a visiting researcher at the U.K. Defence Science and Technology Laboratory at Porton Down through the U.S. Army Engineer and Scientist Exchange Program and was detailed to the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Army for Installations, Energy and Environment in 2016 as the ERDC liaison officer.

Dr. Nelson holds a B.A. in Physics from Illinois Wesleyan University and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Environmental Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He has received multiple Army Civilian Service Awards including the Meritorious Civilian Service Award and has been recognized with the ERDC R&D Achievement Award and the ERDC Outstanding Team Award, among others. He was received the Association of Environmental Engineering and Science Professors outstanding master’s thesis award and was a DoD Science, Mathematics, and Research for Transformation Scholarship recipient in 2009.