Randy J. Nelson
Dr. Nelson is a Distinguished Professor of Social and Behavioral Sciences at The Ohio State University. He is Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience and a member of the Institute for Behavioral Medicine Research at The Ohio State University School of Medicine. He also serves as co-director for the Neuroscience Graduate Studies Program. Dr. Nelson can also direct PhD students in Evolution, Ecology, and Organismal Biology.
Dr. Nelson earned his AB degree in Psychology in 1978 at the University of California at Berkeley. He began his graduate career at Berkeley with work on canine behavioral sex differentiation with Dr. Frank Beach. After receiving his MA in Psychology in 1980, he began focusing on circadian rhythms and photoperiodism with Dr. Irving Zucker. He earned a PhD in Psychology in 1983, as well as a second PhD in Endocrinology in 1984 from the University of California at Berkeley. Dr. Nelson then went on to complete a postdoctoral fellowship in reproductive physiology with Drs. Frank Bronson and Claude Desjardins at the Institute for Reproductive Biology at the University of Texas, Austin from 1984-1986.
Dr. Nelson served on the faculty at The Johns Hopkins University from 1986 until 2000 where he was Professor of Psychology, Neuroscience, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. He joined the faculty at OSU in the fall of 2000. Dr. Nelson has published nearly 300 research articles and several books describing studies in seasonality, behavioral endocrinology, biological rhythms, stress, immune function, sex behavior, and aggressive behavior.
Selected Publications (All papers)
Weil, Z.M., Norman, G.J., Barker, J.M., Su, A.J., Nelson, R.J. & DeVries, A.C. 2008. Social isolation potentiates cell death and inflammatory responses after global ischemia. Molecular Psychiatry, 13: 913-915.
Weil, Z.M., Norman, G.J., DeVries, A.C. & Nelson, R.J. 2008. The injured nervous system: A Darwinian perspective. Progress in Neurobiology, 86: 48–59.
Nelson, R.J. & Trainor. B.C. 2007. Neural mechanisms of aggression. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 8:536-546.
Trainor, B.C., Lin, S., Finy, M.S., Rowland, M.R. & Nelson, R.J. 2007. Photoperiod reverses the effects of estrogen on male aggression via genomic and non-genomic pathways. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (USA), 104:9840-9845.
Huang, A.S., Beigneux, A., Weil, Z.M., Kim, P.M., Molliver, M.E. Blackshaw, S., Nelson, R.J., Young, S.G. &. Snyder, S.H. 2006. D-Aspartate regulates melanocortin formation and function: Behavioral alterations in D-aspartate oxidase-deficient mice. Journal of Neuroscience, 26:2814-2819.
Pyter, L.M., Reader, B.F., & Nelson, R.J. 2005. Short photoperiods impair spatial learning and alter hippocampal dendritic morphology in adult male white-footed mice (Peromyscus leucopus). Journal of Neuroscience, 25: 4521-4526.
Nelson, R.J. 2004. Seasonal immune function and disease responses. Trends in Immunology, 24: 187-192.
Bilbo, S.D., Dhabhar, F.S., Viswanathan, Saul, A., Yellon, S.M. & Nelson, R.J. 2002. Short day lengths augment stress-induced enhancement of skin immune function. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (USA), 99: 4067- 4072.
Van der Ploeg, L.H.T., Martin, W.J., Howard, A., Nargund, R., Austin, C.P., Guan, X., Drisko, J., Cashen, D., Sebhat, I., Patchett, A., Figueroa, D.J., Dilella, A.G., Connolly, B.M., Weinberg, D., Tan, C., Palyha, O., Pong, S-S., MacNeil, T., Rosenblum, C., Vongs, A., Tang, R., Yu, H., Sailer, A., Fong, T.M., Huang, C., Tota, M., Lindia, J., McGowan, E., Chan, R., Stearns, R., Tamvakopoulos, C., Drazen, D.L., Spar, B.D., Nelson, R.J., & MacIntyre, D.E. 2002. A role for melanocortin-4 receptor in erectile function. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (USA), 99: 11381-11386.
Chiavegatto, S., Dawson, V.L., Mamounas, L.A., Koliatsos, V.E., Dawson, T.M. & Nelson, R.J. 2001. Brain serotonin dysfunction accounts for aggression in male mice lacking neuronal nitric oxide synthase. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (USA), 98:1277-1281.
Nelson, R.J. & Chiavegatto, S. 2001. Molecular basis of aggression. Trends in Neurosciences, 24: 713-719.