He was a professor of agronomy at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, and one of the first to prove and warn that nitrogen fertilizers could harm crops and pollute groundwater.
His MS thesis was titled The Relation of Soil Properties and Fertilization to Winter Wheat Production in Nebraska, and was advised by R. H. Rhoades.
Upon completion of the master's degree, he was hired in 1948 as a professor of agronomy at the same university, where he remained for most of his career.
[2][3][4] Other than teaching at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, Olson served as a consultant at the OECD in Paris in 1958 and the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna in 1962.
In 2019, he received the Department of Agronomy and Horticulture Alumni Lifetime Achievement Award from the University of Nebraska–Lincoln.