Hank Nelson

Hank Nelson
Native name	Hyland Neil Nelson
Born	(1937-10-21)21 October 1937 Boort, Victoria
Died	Canberra, Australian Capital Territory
Awards	Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia (1994) Member of the Order of Australia (2008)
Academic background
Alma mater	University of Melbourne (BA, MEd) University of Papua New Guinea (PhD)
Academic work
Institutions	University of Papua New Guinea Australian National University
Main interests	History of Papua New Guinea Australian prisoner of war experience

Hyland Neil "Hank" Nelson AM, FASSA, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , (21 October 1937 – 17 February 2012) was one of Australia's foremost historians of the Pacific, particularly Papua New Guinea. His interest in the region began in 1966 when he took a teaching position at the University of Papua New Guinea. He lived in Papua New Guinea for seven years and studied the period of Japanese occupation, which led to several publications.

He worked on several displays and archival material at the Australian War Memorial about the war in Papua New Guinea, as well as films and radio documentaries. He was Emeritus Professor and Visiting Fellow at the Australian National University's Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies (RSPAS) until his death from cancer in February 2012.

External links

• Silence broken on Australia's worst maritime disaster
• Papua New Guinea upheaval comes as no surprise
• Review of Chased by the Sun