Nelson has been a visiting scholar at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, the BIOS Centre for the Study of Bioscience, Biomedicine, Biotechnology and Society at the London School of Economics, the Bayreuth Academy of Advanced African Studies, the Bavarian American Academy, and the International Center for Advanced Studies at New York University. She serves on the editorial board of Social Studies of Science. Nelson served on the jury for the inaugural Aspen Words Literary Prize and is a juror for the Andrew Carnegie Fellows Program.