Florida Institute of Technology
High Tech with a Human Touch
Chemistry
GORDON L. NELSON
Vice President for Academic Affairs
Professor of Chemistry
Ph.D., Yale University, 1970
Email: nelson@fit.edu
Phone: (321) 674-8480
Fax: (321) 674-7022
RESEARCH INTERESTS
Dr. Nelson's research activities focus on Polymers, particularly Polymer Degradation and Flammability. Specific interests include New
Flame Retardant Materials, Nanocomposites, Combustion Product Toxicity; Polymer Aging and Weathering; and Coating Adhesion to Plastic
Substrates.
RECENT PROJECTS
- High Performance Polyimide Foams - Characterization
- Novel Nanocomposites - Mechanical, Thermal and Flammability Properties
- Ferrocene-Based Polymers
- Effect of Zinc and Zinc Compounds on the Flammability of PPO-HIPS Blends, Polystyrene and on Polycarbonate
- Synthesis and Properties of Siloxane-Polyurethane Block Co-Polymers
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
Dr. Nelson's background is in physical organic chemistry, the how and why of organic reactions. Much of his research over the
past 20 years has been in the area of polymer flammability. Questions include: What is the degradation chemistry? What chemistry
leads to char formation, to toxic gas generation? His more than 190 publications are principally in the area of the flammability
of polymers, particularly engineering plastics. His early contributions included extension of the oxygen index test as a tool to
elucidate the effect of chemical structure on flammability. In industry (General Electric Company) he developed a major
multidisciplinary laboratory devoted to fire and plastics. Over 500 large-scale simulations of fires in plastics products were
conducted with considerable new understanding attained. He conducted some of the early industrial animal toxicity studies on
products of combustion of burning polymers. He was the first to recognize the importance of CO2 in more fully
accounting for toxicity of CO in small-scale toxic potency tests. As a result of this extensive experience, he has participated
extensively in the voluntary standards process for fire safety.
Dr. Nelson received the Society of the Plastics Industry Structural Foam Division's Man of the Year Award for 1979. The Mississippi Legislature passed a Concurrent Resolution in his honor in 1987. He was the American Institute of Chemists Members and Fellows Lecturer in 1989. In 1998 he was the recipient of the Charles Holmes Herty Medal of the Georgia Section of the American Chemical Society. Nelson was also the 1992 chair of the Council of Scientific Society Presidents and was 1988 President of the American Chemical Society.
BOOK
Forum 4: 2007 - An International Forum on Sustainability
Edited By Gordon L. Nelson & Imre Hronszky
