Professor Emeritus Ralph W. Nicholls (Physics 1945, PhD 1948)

Provided by Dr Doris Nicholls

Ralph Nicholls was born in Richmond, Surrey, England on May 3rd 1926, son of the late William James and the late Evelyn Mabel (nee Jones) Nicholls. He was married in Bayfield Ontario on June 28th 1952 to Doris Margaret (McEwen), Ph.D., M.D. He was awarded Canadian Citizenship in 1957.
He was educated at the County School for Boys, Hove, Sussex (1936 - 1943), and The Royal College of Science, Imperial College London (1943 - 1945), supported by a State Bursary in Physics with Radio. He was awarded an A.R.C.S. (first class honours, physics) in 1945. As a result he was also awarded a first class honours (Special) Physics B.Sc. from the University of London in 1946. He was awarded a self-supervised (external) physics Ph.D. from the University of London in 1951, and a D.Sc. (Spectroscopy) from the University of London in 1961.

Between 1945 and 1948 he was Senior Astrophysics Demonstrator, Department of Physics, Imperial College. In 1948 he came to Canada to join the Physics Department of the University of Western Ontario, London Ontario, as Instructor. In that department he was successively Lecturer (1950 - 52), Assistant Professor (1952 - 56), Associate Professor (1956 - 58), Professor (1958 - 63) Senior Professor (1963 - 65). Between 1951 and 1965 he was director of The Molecular Excitation Group in that department. He spent the 1959/60 academic year in the Heat Division of the US National Bureau of Standards, Washington as a GS 14 in the Condensed Free Radicals Spectroscopy Group.
In 1965 he joined York University as Professor and founding Chair (1965 - 69) of the Physics Department and Director of its Graduate Programme, and founding Director of the Centre for Research in Experimental (now Earth and) Space Science, CRESS (1965 - 1992), and Director of its Graduate Programme.

In 1982-83 he was Walter Gordon Research Fellow, York University.  In 1983 he was made Distinguished Research Professor of Physics. Since 1996 he has been Distinguished Research Professor of Physics (Emeritus) and Director (Emeritus) CRESS. He is still very active in undergraduate and postgraduate teaching and in research.

His research career has been devoted to many experimental, theoretical and observational aspects of the spectra of small molecules. This work has emphasized diagnostic interpretation of intensities of molecular spectra from laboratory, atmospheric, space and astrophysical sources in terms of the physical conditions existing in remote light sources, and absorbing atmospheric columns. He has been Associate editor, Journal of Quantitative Spectroscopy and Radiative Transfer since 1960, and was Editor of the Canadian Journal of Physics 1986-1992.

He was made Fellow of The American Physical Society (1976), The Royal Society of Canada, (Academy of Science) (1978), The Optical Society of America (1978) and the Canadian Aeronautics and Space Institute (1979), The UK Institute of Physics, 1956. He has been visiting professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics Stanford University for parts of 1964, 1968, 1973 and in the Summer of 1990, Distinguished Visiting Scholar, Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Stanford University, and Visiting lecturer, NASA Ames Research Center, Mountainview CA. In the Summer of 1991 he was a member of and lecturer at the NATO Advanced Study Institute on Space Systems in the Space Environment, Pitlochry Scotland.

He has been a member of the TRACER, SPEAM1, MAPS, MAPS on MIR, HiRES and MICROMAPS2 Space Science Teams. He was the recipient (1995) of the NASA Group Achievement Award to• the Measurement of Air Pollution from Satellites (MAPS) Experiment Team. He was also the recipient (1997) of a Canadian Space Agency award "in recognition of an outstanding career contributing to the Canadian Space Science Program".

In 1998 he was made an Officer of the Order of Canada.

During his career he published more than 300 papers and book chapters in the scientific literature. He is co-author with Baxter H. Armstrong of Emission, Absorption and Transfer of Radiation in Heated Atmospheres (300pp, Pergamon 1972). He  supervised to successful conclusion, 35 Ph.D.'s and 32 M.Sc.'s.

He was a member of the International Astronomical Union, and was President of its Commission 14 (Fundamental Spectroscopic Data (1983-85). His many Canadian committee memberships include: Chairman (1984-86) NRC Associate Committee on Space Research, Member 1981-2 of the Ad Hoc committee on the future of the Royal Society of Canada, Member, Steering committee of the Royal Society of Canada study of the consequences of nuclear war, Founding chairman (1985-89) Canadian Advisory Committee on the Scientific Uses of Space Station, Founding Member Solar-Terrestrial Research Advisory Committee of the Canadian Space Agency.