Maurice Nelles

Nelles was born in Madison, South Dakota. Nelles earned a bachelor's degree in 1927 and a master's degree in 1928, both from the University of South Dakota and earned a Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1934.^[2][3] While at Harvard, he held the Charles A. Coffin Fellowship and the George H. Emerson and Harvard scholarships.^[3]

During World War II, Nelles worked at Lockheed Corporation and the War Production Board.^[2] While at Lockheed, Nelles and his coworkers Morlan A. Visel and Ernest L. Black proposed a "Pacific Research Foundation" which eventually became SRI International.^[4]

After Lockheed, Nelles became a professor of aeronautical engineering at the University of Southern California, where he designed the laboratory ship Velero IV.^[2] In 1949 he oversaw Otis Barton's record-breaking 4500 ft deep sea dive off of Santa Cruz Island in a benthoscope that Nelles had designed.^[2][5] He would also teach at Pennsylvania State University and the University of Virginia.^[2]

He served as the director of research for Borg Warner, Technicolor, Crane, and Westinghouse.^[2] He was later a consultant to the National Academy of Sciences.^[6]

Nelles died August 30, 1998, in La Jolla, California.^[2]