ተርስ ዲግሪ በኮምፒውተር ሳይንስንና በ1998፣ ፒኤችዲ ዲግሪ በኮምፒውተር ሳይንስን በ2003። ዶክተር ጄላኒ በአሁን ሰዓት በሃርቫርድ ዩኒቨርስቲ የኮምፒውተር ሳይንስ ረዳት ፕሮፌሰር ሆኖ እያገለገለ ይገኛል።
ዶክተር ጄላኒ ከዚህ ቀደም ወደ ኢትዮጵያ በመሄድ ለሁለተኛ ደረጃ ተማሪዎች የ፬ ሳምንት የኮምፒውተር ፕሮግራሚንግ ኮርስ በነፃ ሰጥቷል። ከነዚህም ተማሪዎች አንዳንዶቹ ታዋቂ በሆኑት MIT, Harvard, Princeton, Columbia, and Brown እና ሌሎችም የአሜሪካን ዩኒቨርስቲዎች የነፃ የትምህርት እድል ሊያገኙ ችለዋል። ከዚህም በተጨማሪ በተለያዩ የኢትዮጲያ ዩኒቨርስቲዎች የድህረ ምረቃ ሌክቸሮችን ሰጥቷል። ወደ ኢትዮጲያም በዓመት ሁለት ግዜ በመጓዝ የተለያዮ ነገሮችን ማድረጉን ቀጥሏል።
His mother is Ethiopian & his father is African-American. Born & grew up in The United States, Dr. Jelani Nelson received all his 3 degrees from the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT): B.Sc. in 2005 (double major in Mathematics & Computer Science), M.Sc. in 2006 (Computer Science), and PhD in 2011 (Computer Science). He is currently an Assistant Professor of Computer Science at Harvard University School of Engineering and Applied Sciences.
Dr. Jelani has taught a free 4-week course to high school students on algorithms & programming in Addis Ababa. Many went to study at great universities such as MIT, Harvard, Princeton, Columbia, and Brown. He also has given research lectures at Universities in Ethiopia, and he continues to travel to Ethiopia twice a year.
