Sir Robin Buchanan Nicholson (born 12 August 1934) is a British industrial metallurgist and academic, who served as Chief Scientific Adviser, Cabinet Office, from 1983 to 1985. He then joined the board of Rolls-Royce plc, where he served until 2005. He was also a non-executive board member of BP plc and Pilkington plc.[1]
Nicholson was a fellow of Christ's College, Cambridge, from 1962 to 1966, and was made a lecturer in metallurgy at Cambridge in 1964, before becoming professor of metallurgy at the University of Manchester in 1966. He joined the European subsidiary of the nickel company Inco in 1972, initially to be the director of its research laboratory, becoming a director in 1975, and managing director from 1976-1981.[1] In 1980, he was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering.[3]
Nicholson was elected a member of the US National Academy of Engineering in 1983, with a citation for his leadership in government/industry engineering policy, in bio-engineering, in theory of precipitation hardening in metals (his research field in the early 1960s), and in solar energy materials systems. He was the first chairman of the National Energy Foundation, from its inception in 1988 until replaced by Mary Archer in 1990; he remained on its board of trustees until 1996.[7]
In 1998, Nicholson published Science and Technology in the United Kingdom in the series of Cartermill Guides to World Science & Technology. [8]
In 1958, Nicholson married Elizabeth Mary Caffyn, daughter of Sir Sydney Caffyn. They had two daughters, Jennifer and Helen, along with a son, Timothy. Elizabeth Mary died in 1988.[1]
