Dr. Nelson is Professor of Pediatrics and Neuroscience at Harvard Medical School, and the Richard David Scott Professor of Pediatric Developmental Medicine Research at Children’s Hospital Boston. He is also an affiliate faculty member in the Harvard Graduate School of Education and a Professor in the Department of Society, Human Development and Health, Department of Society, Human Development, and Health, Harvard School of Public Health. He has been inducted as a Fellow by the American Psychological Society, American Psychological Association, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Recognized internationally as a leader in the field of developmental cognitive neuroscience, Dr. Nelson has achieved numerous breakthroughs in broadening scientific understanding of brain and behavioural development during infancy and childhood. Over the last two decades, Dr. Nelson has focused his research efforts on the development and neural bases of memory; recognition and processing of objects, faces, and emotion; and neural plasticity. He has a particular interest in how early experience influences the course of development, and in this context has studied both typically developing children and children at risk for neurodevelopmental disorders. His most recent work focuses on early identification of infants at risk for developing autism.

Dr. Nelson received his undergraduate degree, in Psychology, from McGill University, masters degrees (in Educational Psychology and Psychology) from the University of Wisconsin, and his Ph.D. (in developmental Psychology) from the University of Kansas. He then conducted a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Minnesota, took his first faculty position at Purdue University, his second at the University of Minnesota, and assumed his current position at Children’s Hospital Boston/Harvard Medical School in 2005.

Dr. Nelson has been a successful leader of large-scale research initiatives within the neuroscience community. He serves as the Chairperson of the Advisory Board to the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research program on Experience-Based Brain and Biological Development, and was the Director of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Research Network on Early Experience and Brain Development. He also served on the National Academy of Sciences panel that produced the influential book, From Neurons to Neighborhoods. He has mentored a large number of students and postdoctoral fellows, most of whom have gone on to successful research careers at excellent universities.

For more information on Dr Nelson, please visit his biography at Children's Hospital Boston.