Wilson works to expand applications for nuclear medicine, and to design and develop modular power reactor technology.

[9][10] In 2008, Wilson achieved nuclear fusion that generated a temperature forty times as hot as that of the sun using an inertial electrostatic confinement (IEC) device, which was a variation of the fusor that was invented by Philo T. Farnsworth in 1964.

[1][12] In May 2010, Wilson entered the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair in San Jose, California, and won several awards for his project titled "Fission Vision: The Detection of Prompt and Delayed Induced Fission Gamma Radiation, and the Application to the Detection of Proliferated Nuclear Materials.

"[13] In May 2011, Wilson entered his radiation detector in the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair in Los Angeles, California, against a field of 1,500 competitors and won a US$50,000 award.

[15] He is the subject of the biography The Boy Who Played with Fusion, by Tom Clynes, published in 2015, the movie rights to which have been optioned by 20th Century Fox.