She is also a Lansdowne Research Chair in the Spatial Sciences and Director of Geomatics at the University of Victoria. Director of the Spatial Pattern Analysis and Research (SPAR) Lab, Dr. Nelson has published over 85 peer-reviewed papers. She has a very active graduate training program and is passionate about developing programs to train student with advanced technical skills that can be applied to spatial sciences research. Her research areas of expertise include spatial statistics, spatial-temporal pattern analysis, spatial ecology, and movement.