Rodney Nichols, a former executive at Rockefeller University and the New York Academy of Sciences, died last week (August 30) at a hospice in New York City due to complications of lymphoma, The Washington Post reports. He was 80.
“Rod was a true renaissance man, knowledgeable on an extraordinarily broad range of subjects—from science and technology to education, history, international affairs, and the arts,” reads a New York Times obituary from Rockefeller. “We will miss Rod’s fierce intelligence as well as his wit, humor, and compassion.”
Nichols earned an undergraduate degree in physics from Harvard University. In his younger years, he did research and development for a defense contractor and then with the Department of Defense itself.
Nichols joined Rockefeller University as a vice president in 1970. Among his initiatives, he helped send the university’s scholars to China and coauthored a study on the importance of science and technology in ...
