 In October 2017, FLOGEN Star Outreach awarded her with the Fray International Sustainability Award at SIPS 2017 (Sustainable Industrial Processing Summit), in Cancun, Mexico.Nelson has written almost 200 research-related publications, and has given hundreds of invited presentations to national meetings of professional societies and organizations, universities, and radio and TV programs, such as NPR, "New York Times", "Wall Street Journal", "The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer" and "Marketplace Morning Report".The "Journal of Organic Chemistry" cover of February 4, 2005, and the ACS's Division of Organic Chemistry Calendar cover of September, 2006, each featured her research.