[2][5] He took a leave of absence from Georgia Tech to serve as Assistant Secretary for Conservation and Solar Energy for the Carter Administration from 1980 to 1984.
[8] In 1967, the Silver Bridge failed, and NBC News hired Stelson to inspect the pieces days later; his more detailed findings were eventually published in Popular Science.
[12] Stelson simultaneously served as the interim director of the Georgia Tech Research Institute from 1975 to 1976,[2] during which time he reorganized the station into eight semi-autonomous laboratories in order to allow each to develop a specialization and clientele, a model it retains (with slight modifications) to this day.
[13] He took a leave of absence from Georgia Tech to serve as Assistant Secretary for Conservation and Solar Energy for the Carter Administration from 1980 to 1984.
[2][4] In 1990, Stelson left Georgia Tech to become a founding administrator (vice president for research and development) at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.