Warwick L. Nicholas
Warwick L. Nicholas | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | April 3, 1926 Cheshire, England |
| Died | May 5, 2010 Canberra, Australia |
| Nationality | Australian |
| Alma mater | University of Liverpool Australian National University (ANU) |
| Partner | Evelyn Nicholas |
| Children | 4 |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Zoology, Nematology |
| Thesis | The Role of Culicoides in the Epidemiology of Acanthocheilonema Perstans in the British Cameroons (1953) |
Warwick Llewellyn Nicholas (1926-2010) was a pioneer in the field of nematology in Australia and globally.[1] He was a foundational member of the Australian Society for Parasitology (ASP) and in 1964, he organised the first ASP meeting. He became President of the Society in 1978,[2] before being an elected Fellow from 1979.[2]
Biography
Early life and education
Warwick Nicholas (affectionately known as "Nick") was born 1926 in Cheshire - a historic county in the north west of England. His lived his early childhood under the care of his mother and several relatives, and his father passed away when Nick was quite young of age.[1] At one stage Nick and his mother moved from living in England to Canada.[3]
As a child, he attended a number of different schools; from all reports few being very happy experiences. However, it was at one of these schools Nick developed his lifelong interest in aquatic invertebrates - Dauntsey's School.[2] Dauntsey's was a public school in Wiltshire that specialised in the fields of science and agriculture. Here he became interested in exploring the life within the dew-ponds on the Salisbury Plain, ran the school aquarium, and developed his love for microscopy.
After finishing school during the Second World War, he served in the military training to become a pilot. His aviation training began in UK and concluded in the USA. Throughout this time, Nick developed a substantial amount of flying experience, with much of it being solo flight. However, the war ended before his pilot training led to active service. After the war, Nick returned to the UK and continued his military training as a radar medic. After demobilisation, he concluded his service in 1946 in the role of officer.
Career and research
After the war, Nick took up an opportunity to attend university. He studied Zoology and other sciences at the University of Liverpool, where he graduated with First Class Honours in 1951.[3] He was then awarded a Research Assistantship at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, where he enrolled for a PhD.[2] His PhD work led him to studying insect-vectored diseases in West Africa.[4] He was awarded the doctorate in 1953 for the specific work he did there on filariasis and the role of the biting midge Culicoides[2][5]. Following this work in 1953, Nick won a Beit postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Liverpool [2] and was appointed to a Lectureship in the Department of Zoology from 1955 - 1960.[3] This enabled Nick to continue his work on rhabditid nematodes. Here too he was able to begin working on a group of parasitic worms - the Acanthocephala - a largely neglected group of nematodes at the time.[2] Through various outside influences at this time, Nick began a long career of researching virtually unaided into nematodes.[1] At this time he had found his true calling in life, and his life-long partner, his wife Evelyn.[1]
During his postdoctoral at the University of Liverpool, Nick produced some of the most historically significant findings from his research; which began with his development of the first axenic cultures of both the Bristol and Bergerac strains of Caenorhabditis elegans in 1956.[3][6][7] In 1957 & 1958, Nick was a Travelling Fellow of the British Medical Research Council (MRC) , funded by a Rockerfeller grant (on leave from the University of Liverpool).
Nicholas was an author of The Biology of Free-Living Nematodes (1975), published by Clarendon Press, Oxford. This remains a classic and important resource for those working on the ecology of nematodes.[citation needed] He described 35 new species and 5 new genera of nematodes.[citation needed] He was a founder of the Australian Society for Parasitology, and an editor of the Australasian Nematologists Newsletter.[citation needed]
Provided knowledge and skills, with collegial conduit Ellsworth C. Dougherty, on species C. elegans vitally important to Sydney Brenner's work.[citation needed] Brenner shared in a Nobel Prize in 2002 "for their discoveries concerning genetic regulation of organ development and programmed cell death".
References
- ^ a b c d Hodda, Mike (2010). "Warwick L. (Nick) Nicholas (3 April 1926–5 May 2010)". Nematology. 12 (5): 807–808. doi:10.1163/138855410X523005. ISSN 1388-5545.
- ^ a b c d e f g "Warwick Nicholas FASP 1979". The Australian Society for Parasitology Inc. Retrieved 27 March 2022.
- ^ a b c d "Warwick L. (Nick) Nicholas". Nemaplex.
- ^ Nicholas, W. L.; Kershaw, W. E.; Keay, R. W. J.; Zahra, A. (March 1953). "Studies on the Epidemiology of Filariasis in West Africa, with Special Reference to the British Cameroons and the Niger Delta". Annals of Tropical Medicine & Parasitology. 47 (1): 95–111. doi:10.1080/00034983.1953.11685550. ISSN 0003-4983.
- ^ Nicholas, Warwick Llewellyn (1953). "The Role of Culicoides in the Epidemiology of Acanthocheilonema Perstans in the British Cameroons - Thesis Ph. D". University of Liverpool.
{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires|journal=(help) - ^ VanDyk., Fatt, Helene (1961). Genetic control of maturation and reproduction in the Nematode Caenorhabditis elegans. OCLC 920443142.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ Dougherty, Ellsworth C.; Hansen, Eder Lindsay; Nicholas, Warwick L.; Mollett, J. Anthony; Yarwood, Evangeline A. (2006-12-15). "AXENIC CULTIVATION OF CAENORHABDITIS BRIGGSAE (NEMATODA: RHABDITIDAE) WITH UNSUPPLEMENTED AND SUPPLEMENTED CHEMICALLY DEFINED MEDIA*". Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences. 77 (2): 176–217. doi:10.1111/j.1749-6632.1959.tb36901.x. ISSN 0077-8923.