Career
He is Scholle Chair Professor in Food Processing at the Department of Food Science at Purdue University. Aseptic processing and packaging would be involved in the relief efforts following the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Nelson was president of the Institute of Food Technologists (Institute of Food Technologists) for 2001-2002.
In his early life, Nelson worked at his family"s tomato cannery on their farm near Morristown, Indiana, developing an interest in horticulture.
This led him to a 4-H award when he was 15 at the Indiana State Fair, earning him lunch with the Indiana governor, a gold watch, and a drive around the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Nelson would return to his family farm as a canning plant manager of his family farm in the late 1950s.
After the plant closed in 1960, he returned to Purdue and earned his Doctor of Philosophy on flavor volatility in canned tomatoes. Nelson retired from teaching at Purdue in 2010.
The Food Science Building at Purdue which he helped design that opened in 1998 was renamed in his honor as the Nelson Hall of Food Science.
