Nicholas P. Nelson

Nicholas P. Nelson, PhD

Languages spoken: English

Academic Information

Departments Primary - Radiation Oncology

Nicholas Nelson, PhD, is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Radiation Oncology at the University of Utah and a Medical Physicist at Huntsman Cancer Hospital (HCH). He earned his BS in Nuclear Engineering, as well as his MS and PhD in Medical Physics, from the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Dr. Nelson completed his residency training in Medical Physics at the University of Utah. His clinical and research interests include workflow automation, scripting and data analysis, offline and online adaptive radiotherapy, and proton therapy.

Education History

Residency Huntsman Cancer Institute, University of Utah
 Resident
Doctoral Training University of Wisconsin – Madison
 PhD
Graduate Training University of Wisconsin – Madison
 MS
Undergraduate University of Wisconsin – Madison
 BS

Selected Publications

Journal Article

  1. Nelson N, Oare C, Nelson G, Martin T, Huang J, Zhao H (2025). Feasibility of HyperSight CBCT for adaptive radiation therapy: A phantom benchmark study of dose calculation accuracy and delivery verification on the Halcyon. J Appl Clin Med Phys, 26(9), e70245. (Read full article)
  2. Wake KK, Bennett LC, Smith BR, Culberson WS, Hyer DE, Flynn RT, Patwardhan KA, Nelson NP, Hill PM (2025). The Cut-Sort-Group algorithm for efficient delivery of collimated step-and-shoot proton arc therapy. Med Phys. (Read full article)
  3. Bennett LC, Hyer DE, Vu J, Patwardhan K, Erhart K, Gutierrez AN, Pons E, Jensen E, Ubau M, Zapata J, Wroe A, Wake K, Nelson NP, Culberson WS, Smith BR, Hill PM, Flynn RT (2024). Patient-specific quality assurance of dynamically-collimated proton therapy treatment plans. Med Phys, 51(9), 5901-5910. (Read full article)
  4. Bennett LC, Hyer DE, Erhart K, Nelson NP, Culberson WS, Smith BR, Hill PM, Flynn RT (2023). PETRA: A pencil beam trimming algorithm for analytical proton therapy dose calculations with the dynamic collimation system. Med Phys, 50(11), 7263-7280. (Read full article)
  5. Nelson NP, Culberson WS, Hyer DE, Geoghegan TJ, Patwardhan KA, Smith BR, Flynn RT, Gutirrez AN, Boland T, Hill PM (2023). Integration and dosimetric validation of a dynamic collimation system for pencil beam scanning proton therapy. Biomed Phys Eng Express, 9(6). (Read full article)
  6. Geoghegan T, Patwardhan K, Ying Q, Nelson N, Yu J, Gutierrez A, Hill P, Flynn R, Hyer D (2023). Design, testing and characterization of a proton central axis alignment device for the dynamic collimation system. Biomed Phys Eng Express, 9(4). (Read full article)
  7. Nelson NP, Culberson WS, Hyer DE, Geoghegan TJ, Patwardhan KA, Smith BR, Flynn RT, Yu J, Gutirrez AN, Hill PM (2023). Dosimetric delivery validation of dynamically collimated pencil beam scanning proton therapy. Phys Med Biol, 68(5). (Read full article)
  8. Khan AU, Nelson NP, Culberson WS, DeWerd LA (2022). On the perturbation effect and LET dependence of beam quality correction factors in carbon ion beams. Med Phys, 50(2), 1105-1120. (Read full article)
  9. Geoghegan T, Patwardhan K, Nelson N, Hill P, Flynn R, Smith B, Hyer D (2022). Mechanical Characterization and Validation of the Dynamic Collimation System Prototype for Proton Radiotherapy. J Med Device, 16(2), 021013. (Read full article)
  10. Smith BR, Nelson NP, Geoghegan TJ, Patwardhan KA, Hill PM, Yu J, Gutirrez AN, Allen BG, Hyer DE (2022). The dosimetric enhancement of GRID profiles using an external collimator in pencil beam scanning proton therapy. Med Phys, 49(4), 2684-2698. (Read full article)
  11. Nelson NP, Culberson WS, Hyer DE, Smith BR, Flynn RT, Hill PM (2022). Investigating aperture-based approximations to model a focused dynamic collimation system for pencil beam scanning proton therapy. Biomed Phys Eng Express, 8(2). (Read full article)
  12. Nelson NP, Culberson WS, Hyer DE, Geoghegan TJ, Patwardhan KA, Smith BR, Flynn RT, Yu J, Rana S, Gutirrez AN, Hill PM (2021). Development and validation of the Dynamic Collimation Monte Carlo simulation package for pencil beam scanning proton therapy. Med Phys, 48(6), 3172-3185. (Read full article)
  13. Geoghegan TJ, Nelson NP, Flynn RT, Hill PM, Rana S, Hyer DE (2020). Design of a focused collimator for proton therapy spot scanning using Monte Carlo methods. Med Phys, 47(7), 2725-2734. (Read full article)