Philip C. Nelson

Philip Nelson is a Professor of Biological Physics at the University of Pennsylvania (UPenn). His research focuses on the physics of artificial biomembranes and biopolymers, like DNA and other “soft” condensed matter systems.

Nelson received his A.B. at Princeton University (1980), followed by his Master of Advanced Study at the University of Cambridge (1981), and his Ph.D. at Harvard University (1984). He joined the faculty of Boston University as Assistant Professor in 1987, before transferring to UPenn in 1988.

Nelson’s research has spanned from quantum fields and superstrings to biological physics. He has been Chair of the American Physical Society’s Division of Biological Physics (2020-2021). He is the author of “From Photon to Neuron” (2017), “Biological Physics Student Edition” (2020), “A Student’s Guide to Python for Physical Modeling Second Ed. (2021), “Physical Models of Living Systems Second Ed.” (2022). He gave the Heinz Pagels Memorial Public Lecture in Aspen (2011). He is a founding editorial board member of the journal “The Biophysicist” (Cell Press and Biophysical Society).

For his teaching, Nelson has received the the UPenn Ira Abrams Memorial Award for excellence in undergraduate teaching (2001), the Emily Gray Award of the Biophysical Society “for far reaching and significant contributions to the teaching of biophysics” (2009), and the UPenn Dennis M. Deturck Award for Innovation in Teaching (2018). For his research, Nelson was named a Junior Fellow of the Harvard University Society of Fellows (1984-1987), an Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Fellow (1988), and a Fellow of the American Physical Society (2003). He also received the National Science Foundation Presidential Young Investigator Award (1988).

Learn more: https://www.physics.upenn.edu/~pcn

“For me there is no substitute for the mix of staff support, calm reflection, and expert visitors that is uniquely Aspen.” – Philip C. Nelsom