Dr. Nelson Ma is an Associate Professor in Accounting at the UTS Business School. His research interests are in audit, corporate governance and aged care with a focus on understanding how to improve decision making and information disclosures in organisations to provide better outcomes to their stakeholders and society. Nelson has published widely in peer-reviewed academic journals in management, health, finance and accounting including Contemporary Accounting Research, Australian Journal of Management and Pacific-Basin Finance Journal.

He is co-lead of the Business and Strategy Theme in the UTS Ageing Research Collaborative (UARC) and a co-author of UARC's bi-annual Australia Aged Care Sector Report. His has been involved in over $500,000 in external research funding from government and industry organisations. This research and industry reports havee featured in Government policy documents and media outlets including ABC News, Forbes Magazine, the Australian Financial Review, the Guardian and the Sydney Morning Herald. His efforts in research engagement have been recognised with 2023 UTS Business School Achievement Award in External Engagement. 

Nelson has taught at the postgraduate and undergraduate level in financial accounting, management accounting, auditing, corporate consolidation and business valuation featuring in the Business School's top teachers lists in 2023 and 2024. His contributions to student learning extend beyond the classroom with a focus on extra-curricular student development. Between 2018 and 2023, Nelson was faculty advisor of UTS Chapter of Beta Alpha Psi, a accounting, finance and IT honours society that focus on community service and professional development. During his tenure, the UTS Chapter was internationally the most awarded chapter from over 320 other universities in Australia, New Zealand and the United States,. 

Since 2019, Nelson has been program director of the UTS Case Team, an internationally awarded program for UTS Business School students competing in case solving. The UTS Case Team has placed 1st in six international case competitions since 2019. The initiative includes the UTS Global Case Competiiton, UTS Case Cup and UTS Leadership insights interview series, and partners with ASX companies including Macquarie Group and QBE Insurance. For his work on engaging students across the university through the UTS Case Team, Nelson was awarded the 2024 UTS Vice-Chancellors Learning and Teaching award for student engagement. 

From 2020 to 2023, Nelson was Deputy Head (Staff) in the UTS Accounting Discipline Group, and currently serves on the Editorial Board of Pacific Accounting Review.