Frederick Nelson (1932 – January 7, 2009) was professor emeritus of mechanical engineering at Tufts University School of Engineering in Medford, Massachusetts, USA. His areas of professional interest included acoustics, vibration, shock (mechanics) and rotordynamics. He wrote or co-authored more than 50 articles in professional publications. He wrote a monograph entitled An Introduction to Rotordynamics which was published posthumously by SAVIAC. Professor Nelson graduated from the Tufts College of Engineering in 1954 and received his Ph.D. in applied mechanics from Harvard University in 1961. He joined the Tufts faculty in 1955. He was Dean of the College of Engineering from 1980 to 1994.