Arthur C. Nelson is Professor Emeritus of Urban Planning and Real Estate Development, and Geography, at the University of Arizona, where he designed the nation's largest, most diverse, and top-rated online graduate real estate program. He is also Presidential Professor Emeritus of City & Metropolitan Planning, and Finance, at the University of Utah where, from 2008-2014, he served as founding Director of the Metropolitan Research Center, Adjunct Professor of Finance in the David Eccles School of Business, and founding Director of the Master of Real Estate Development program. 

Previously, Nelson was founding Director of Urban Affairs and Planning for Virginia Tech serving the National Capital region, and professor of City and Regional Planning, and Public Policy, at the Georgia Institute of Technology where he was also Adjunct Professor of Law at Georgia State University; he is a co-founder of the nation's only bi-university master planning and JD program. During 2000-2001, Nelson was an expert consultant on smart growth for the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). 

Nelson’s major teaching and research areas are metropolitan development policy and patterns, smart growth, public facility planning and finance, real estate development, metropolitan governance, and urban infill and redevelopment methods. In addition to being a principal investigator or Co-PI on more than $50 million in grants and contracts, Nelson has written more than twenty books and more than 400 other works.