Diplomacy & Lobbying

Dr. Totah has followed an unusual path from academic neuroscientist to making Track 1.5 diplomatic contributions to transatlantic international relations. Dr. Nelson Totah is a Texan who chose to establish his lab at the University of Helsinki in Finland. He joined the University’s cross-cutting life sciences research unit, the Helsinki Institute of Life Science, and the Faculty of Pharmacy as a tenure-track Assistant Professor in 2019. Since 2024, he has been a tenure-track Associate Professor. He received his B.S. in neuroscience and behavioral biology at Emory University (Atlanta, Georgia, US). He earned his PhD in neuroscience from the University of Pittsburgh (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, US), after which he worked as a Marie Curie Postdoctoral Fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics (Tübingen, Germany).

His experience in 2020 as the recipient of a grant from the Fulbright Finland Foundation supporting transatlantic scientific collaboration showed him the real-world impact that transatlantic collaboration can have on solving the global challenges that all nations must face together. In 2022, when he was asked to serve as a Commissioner on the Board of Directors overseeing the US-Finland Fulbright Commission, he gladly agreed to work in support of the US-Finnish bilateral exchange of talent and knowledge through people-to-people exchange of students, professionals, and experts.

In 2022, Dr. Totah was appointed to the Board of Directors of the US-Finland Fulbright Commission by US Ambassador Douglas T. Hickey. Since 2025, he has served as the Chairman of the Board and served as its Vice-Chair from 2022-2025. In this role, he works with a group of fellow US and Finnish Commissioners to oversee the work of the Commission, its programs, and awards to grantees. Additionally, he has acted as the liaison to the US Congress, and a liaison to the Parliament of Finland, and the Government of Finland. Dr. Totah has drafted legislative language for appropriations bills and successfully lobbied for their passage in the US House of Representatives and the US Senate, and he has also drafted language for the reauthorization of the National Quantum Initiative Act at the request of a Senator’s office. Dr. Totah has also worked to encourage the US government to use the Commission to implement shipyard, industry, and military professional exchanges to meet the strategic goals of the US Coast Guard, including icebreakers for its Polar Security Cutter program. Dr. Totah successfully lobbied for language to fund a Fulbright Icebreaker Talent Exchange in the FY26 Senate Appropriations Bill for the Department of Defense. His work led to the first Fulbright appropriation outside the Department of State Appropriations Bill since the inception of the Fulbright Program in 1946. Dr. Totah has also served as an expert witness in a hearing of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Parliament of Finland. An interview of Dr. Totah discussing his work can be found here.

In a personal capacity, Dr. Totah advocates for strong US-Finnish relations and has worked to build good will, understanding, and engagement for Finland at the highest levels of the US Legislative Branch. Personally, he champions integrated deterrence: synchronizing military, economic, and diplomatic capabilities to maintain a peaceful and secure state in global affairs. He has worked, pro bono and in his private capacity as a US citizen, to educate US legislators on what he sees as the benefits – to both nations – of strong bilateral people-to-people exchange of talent and knowledge in Arctic security, maritime transportation, emerging and dual-use technologies, and other key strategic areas of shared bilateral interest. Dr. Totah is also a Member of the Public Diplomacy Council of America.

In addition to his work in the laboratory and government, Dr. Totah shares science outside of the laboratory through his work as the Chairman of the Board of the Science National Honor Society, a US-based national science education organization with an active membership of over 10,000 students across 1,000 schools and over 100,000 alumni. Dr. Totah founded this organization in 2000 with the mission of recognizing achievements of US high school students in the sciences, nurturing student interest in STEM fields, and fostering a genuine sense of local community centered around science at each high school.