# Hosea Nelson

Hosea Nelson is an American chemist who is a professor at California Institute of Technology. His research investigates the design and total synthesis of complex molecules. He was a finalist for the 2021 Blavatnik Awards for Young Scientists.

## Early life and education

Nelson grew up in San Francisco and has said that his parents were hippies. He started his career working in construction. He decided that he wanted to attend college, but wasn't sure what he wanted to specialize in. He took some biology courses at a community college, and secured a job working at San Francisco State University. Nelson became fascinated by scientific research, and particularly interested in the design and synthesis of molecules. After four years, Nelson started study at University of California, Berkeley, where he completed a chemistry degree in two years. Nelson then got a job at Panasonic energy solutions, in Silicon Valley, working on solar power and batteries. He was contacted by a Professor from University of California, Berkeley, who helped him identify funding for graduate school. Nelson was a doctoral researcher at California Institute of Technology, where he worked with Brian Stoltz. He focused on total synthesis in the plant Thapsia garganica.

## Research and career

Nelson worked as a postdoctoral researcher in catalysis. His preliminary ideas were scooped, and instead he dedicated time to ion pairing. In 2015, Nelson started his own laboratory at University of California, Los Angeles. Nelson was appointed Professor of Chemistry at California Institute of Technology in 2021. He is interested in green chemistry, sustainable synthesis and developing characterizing protocols. He makes use of scanning electron microscopy to image molecular systems. In particular, Nelson developed microcrystal electron diffraction (MicroED) to identify the locations of atoms within molecules at high resolution. He uses MicroED to design new pharmaceuticals and understand the interactions of biomolecules with the human body.

### Selected publications

* Christopher G Jones; Michael W Martynowycz; Johan Hattne; Tyler J Fulton; Brian M Stoltz; Jose A Rodriguez; Hosea M Nelson; Tamir Gonen (November 2, 2018). "The CryoEM Method MicroED as a Powerful Tool for Small Molecule Structure Determination". ACS Central Science. 4 (11): 1587–1592. doi:10.1021/ACSCENTSCI.8B00760. ISSN 2374-7943. PMC 6276044. PMID 30555912. Wikidata Q59485557.
* Qingyu Sun; Hosea Nelson; Tony Ly; Brian M Stoltz; Ryan R Julian (February 1, 2009). "Side chain chemistry mediates backbone fragmentation in hydrogen deficient peptide radicals". Journal of Proteome Research. 8 (2): 958–966. doi:10.1021/PR800592T. ISSN 1535-3893. PMID 19113886. Wikidata Q33396334.
* S P Fisher; A W Tomich; S O Lovera; J F Kleinsasser; Juchen Guo; M J Asay; H M Nelson; Vincent Lavallo (February 1, 2019). "Nonclassical Applications of closo-Carborane Anions: From Main Group Chemistry and Catalysis to Energy Storage". Chemical Reviews. 119 (14): 8262–8290. doi:10.1021/ACS.CHEMREV.8B00551. ISSN 0009-2665. PMID 30707011. Wikidata Q91302662.
* Hosea M Nelson; Brett D Williams; Javier Miró; F Dean Toste (February 27, 2015). "Enantioselective 1,1-arylborylation of alkenes: merging chiral anion phase transfer with Pd catalysis". Journal of the American Chemical Society. 137 (9): 3213–3216. doi:10.1021/JACS.5B00344. ISSN 0002-7863. PMC 4564013. PMID 25723255. Wikidata Q36041380.

### Awards and honors

Nelson attended the Kavli Frontiers of Science ceremony in 2020 and was a finalist for the 2021 Blavatnik Awards for Young Scientists. He was selected as one of Chemical & Engineering News Talented 12.