Nichols was born on Staten Island in 1920 to a family of politically active Communist Party members. Nichols's family was active in union organizing and supporting the Republican cause in the Spanish Civil War. He enrolled at Cornell in 1937, but his studies were interrupted by his service in the United States Army during World War II. In 1946, he received his B.S. in electrical engineering, and later received an M.S. in 1949. He earned a PhD at the University of Alaska in 1956.
He was admitted to the Cornell faculty as an assistant professor in 1949, but left temporarily to earn his Ph.D. In 1953, he became an associate professor and a full professor in 1959. Initially, his work at Cornell focused on radio waves in the ionosphere, but after he grew concerned that his studies would lead to military applications, his pacifist beliefs caused him to change his field of study to science education. In this field he developed new techniques in primary school science education.
In addition to the duties of his professorship, Nichols was very active in the administration of the University. He vocally championed the social justice vision of the University and was closely allied with the nascent Africana Studies department. He was one of the first speakers of the Cornell University Senate, a governing body during the 1970s a which included faculty, student, and employee representatives.

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