Nicholls, Robert V. V. (Robert Van Vliet), 1913-

Robert Nicholls was born in Montréal on February 18th, 1913. He was educated at McGill University, obtaining his B.A. in 1933, M.Sc. in 1935, and Ph.D. in chemistry in 1936. He also undertook post-doctoral work at Cornell University, the Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn, and Cambridge University in his area of specialization, high polymers. He was appointed Lecturer in chemistry at McGill in 1937 and Assistant Professor in 1940. During the Second World War, Nicholls was part of a group of researchers at McGill charged with developing explosives, notably RDX. From 1946 until his retirement, Nicholls was Associate Professor of chemistry, as well as serving as Associate Dean and Secretary of the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research. Nicholls is also an authority on the history of science; he collected and catalogued the Chemistry Department's library of historic works on chemistry. For his work in establishing the Canadian Railroad Museum, he was awarded the Order of Canada in 1984 and received an Award of Merit from the Canadian Railroad Historical Association in 1990. Nicholls married Mable E. Miner in 1945 and had two daughters. He passed away in 2007.