Timothy Nelson

Biography

Timothy Nelson, Ph.D., is the Mildred Francis Thompson Professor of Psychology and serves as the Director of the Center for Brain, Biology and Behavior (CB3) at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL). He is also the Associate Director of the Rural Drug Addiction Research (RDAR) Center and directs the Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience and Pediatric Health Labs at UNL.

Dr. Nelson’s research interests are in pediatric health neuroscience. Specifically, his work explores the interplay between brain, behavior, and environment in influencing child and adolescent health and development. Much of his recent work has focused on understanding the development and deployment of regulation abilities in the context of health, with a particular emphasis on the role of regulation in “high-impact” health behaviors (e.g., sleep, diet, physical activity, substance use) and related outcomes (e.g., obesity, mental health problems) in adolescence. To this end, Dr. Nelson and his collaborators leverage methodologies from diverse fields, including cognitive neuroscience (e.g., fMRI, EEG/ERP, neuropsychological tasks), health behavior science (e.g., actigraphy, multiple 24-hour dietary recall), and health systems science (e.g., geocoding of food and physical activity environments). The broad goal of this research program is to inform the timing and targets of novel interventions to promote long-term health by addressing both neural and environmental vulnerabilities for poor health outcomes.

Dr. Nelson has published over 100 peer-reviewed journal articles, highlighted by papers in some of the leading journals in pediatric health, behavioral medicine, prevention science, developmental psychology, and clinical psychology. His research has been funded primarily by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), including nearly $12 million in funding as Principal Investigator and another $44 million for projects on which he served as Site Principal Investigator, Co-Investigator, or Associate Director.

Dr. Nelson teaches courses in child psychopathology and assessment. He also mentors graduate and undergraduate students with interests in pediatric health and neuroscience.

Dr. Nelson received his Ph.D. in clinical child psychology from the University of Kansas in 2008 following a clinical internship at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center. He subsequently completed his post-doctoral fellowship in pediatric psychology in the Stanford University School of Medicine before joining the UNL faculty in 2009.