Draft:Patrick William Nelson

• Comment: Every statement that could potentially be challenged needs to be backed up by a reliable source per WP:BLPRS. Cocobb8 (💬 talk • ✏️ contribs) 15:53, 1 October 2024 (UTC)

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Patrick William Nelson (born December 23, 1964) is an American mathematician. He is a professor of applied mathematics and Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Lawrence Technological University in Southfield, Michigan. He is known for his work on the mathematical modeling of HIV dynamics and Diabetes. His work focuses on applying dynamical systems, computational modeling, and delay differential equations to help understand the complex nature of diseases. 

Family and baseball

He was born in Cincinnati to parents Frank and Norma Nelson.  His father was a beer salesman for Dennert Distributing and was responsible for the Cincinnati Reds and Bengals accounts.  Frank was also the salesman who handled all of the “mob” accounts in Newport, Kentucky, in the early 50s and 60s. Patrick’s Uncle, Earl Putnam, played in the NFL.  His Uncle, Narb Warken, was a hall-of-fame fast-pitch softball player.  Patrick was the first person in his family to go to college.  He had an opportunity to play baseball at the University of Cincinnati. Still, he wanted to go to Arizona, where he traveled every Spring as a kid to visit his Grandparents and family.  He wanted to play baseball at Arizona State University, and after some ups and downs, he finally had a chance in 1985 with a walk-on offer but was cut after tryouts. It was a good team then, with a player named Barry Bonds.  After 4 years of working at Carl’s Jr as a training store manager and trying to play baseball, he quit in 1989 and returned to school to study business.

In his sophomore year at ASU, he fell in love with Mathematics but had to decide between being a business major or a math major.  One day, while walking down the Quad, he decided to flip a coin, and it came up tails, and the rest is history.   That chance changed his life entirely by putting in place the events that led him to meet his fantastic wife of 30 years, Dr. Trachette Jackson, and end up at Lawrence Technological University.

Education career

While studying applied mathematics at Arizona State University, he attended a talk by his future PhD advisor, James D. Murray, on the mathematics of pattern formation and "how the leopard got its spots." He graduated in 1994 from ASU and earned his MS and PhD at the University of Washington in 1996 and 1998. After postdoctoral research at the University of Minnesota, and Duke University, under the mentorship of Dr. Mike Reed, he joined the University of Michigan faculty in 2000.

Professional career

He was a tenure track faculty in the math department at the University of Michigan, where he received the Burroughs Wellcome Career Award for his work on modeling HIV.  Dr.Nelson then transitioned into a position with the University of Michigan Medical School’s Center for Computational Biology and Medicine (CCBM).  The medical connection allowed his HIV research to progress to include integrating laboratory experiments with mathematical modeling. It was instrumental in his receiving a major NSF program award for undergraduate research in math and biology.  As part of his NSF UBM award, he trained over ten undergraduates who went on to MD/Ph.D. programs or Ph.D. programs at MIT, Harvard, Michigan, and other top institutions.  He has authored or co-authored over 50 papers with over 5500 citations and has been the PI or Co-PI on numerous NIH and NSF grants totaling over 2.5 million dollars.  

He became Chair of the Mathematics and Computer Science Department at Lawrence Technological University in 2016 and served until January of 2024.  In December of 2022, he became Interim Dean for the College of Arts and Sciences.   He has served on the Society of Mathematical Biology Board of Directors and continues serving as the Board's President for the Cornerstone Jefferson Douglas Academy in Detroit.

Family life

Before all this, Dr. Nelson earned his Bachelor of Science in Mathematics from Arizona State University, where he met his wife of 30 years, Dr. Trachette Jackson. Dr. Jackson is a distinguished mathematics professor and the Associate Vice President for Research – DEI Initiatives at the University of Michigan. They have two scholar-athlete sons, Joshua, who graduated from Wayne State University in 2020 and now is a lead product designer (25), and Noah, who graduated from the University of Chicago in 2024 and is now an Android Engineer (22).