Sir Robin Buchanan Nicholson (12 August 1934 – 15 November 2024) was 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 Rolls-Royce (always hyphenated) may refer to: * Rolls-Royce Limited, a British manufacturer of cars and later aero engines, founded in 1906, now defunct Automobiles * Rolls-Royce Motor Cars, the current car manufacturing company incorporated in ...

plc, where he served until 2005. He was also a non-executive board member of BP plc and

Pilkington Pilkington is a glass-manufacturing company which is based in Lathom, Lancashire, England. It includes several legal entities in the UK, and is a subsidiary of Japanese company Nippon Sheet Glass (NSG). It was formerly an independent company ...

plc.

Early life and education

Nicholson was born in

Sutton Coldfield Sutton Coldfield or the Royal Town of Sutton Coldfield ( ), is a town and civil parish in the city of Birmingham, West Midlands County, West Midlands, England. The town lies around 8 miles northeast of Birmingham city centre, 9 miles south of L ...

Warwickshire Warwickshire (; abbreviated Warks) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the West Midlands (region), West Midlands of England. It is bordered by Staffordshire and Leicestershire to the north, Northamptonshire to the east, Ox ...

, to Carroll Nicholson and Nancy Esther Levi. After attending

Oundle School Oundle School is a public school (United Kingdom), public school (English Private schools in the United Kingdom, fee-charging boarding school, boarding and day school) for pupils 11–18 situated in the market town of Oundle in Northamptonshire ...

, Nicholson studied natural sciences at

St Catharine's College, Cambridge St Catharine's College is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England. Founded in 1473 as Katharine Hall, it adopted its current name in 1860. The college is nicknamed "Catz". The colle ...

, gaining a BA in 1956, followed by a PhD in

metallurgy Metallurgy is a domain of materials science and engineering that studies the physical and chemical behavior of metallic elements, their inter-metallic compounds, and their mixtures, which are known as alloys. Metallurgy encompasses both the ...

in 1959. Nicholson was a fellow of

Christ's College, Cambridge Christ's College is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England. The college includes the Master, the Fellows of the College, and about 450 undergraduate and 250 graduate students. The c ...

, 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 The University of Manchester is a public university, public research university in Manchester, England. The main campus is south of Manchester city centre, Manchester City Centre on Wilmslow Road, Oxford Road. The University of Manchester is c ...

in 1966. He joined the European subsidiary of the

nickel Nickel is a chemical element; it has symbol Ni and atomic number 28. It is a silvery-white lustrous metal with a slight golden tinge. Nickel is a hard and ductile transition metal. Pure nickel is chemically reactive, but large pieces are slo ...

company

Inco Vale Canada Limited (formerly Vale Inco, CVRD Inco and Inco Limited; for corporate branding purposes simply known as "Vale" and pronounced in English) is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Brazilian mining company Vale. Vale's nickel mining and ...

in 1972, initially to be the director of its research laboratory, becoming a director in 1975, and managing director from 1976 to 1981. In 1980, he was elected as a

Fellow A fellow is a title and form of address for distinguished, learned, or skilled individuals in academia, medicine, research, and industry. The exact meaning of the term differs in each field. In learned society, learned or professional society, p ...

of the

Royal Academy of Engineering The Royal Academy of Engineering (RAEng) is the United Kingdom's national academy of engineering. The Academy was founded in June 1976 as the Fellowship of Engineering with support from Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, who became the first senio ...

. In 1981, Nicholson joined the

Central Policy Review Staff The Central Policy Review Staff (CPRS), nicknamed the "Think-Tank", was an independent unit within the Cabinet Office of the United Kingdom tasked with developing long term strategy and co-ordinating policy across government departments. It was es ...

in the

Cabinet Office The Cabinet Office is a Departments of the Government of the United Kingdom, ministerial department of the Government of the United Kingdom. It is responsible for supporting the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, prime minister and Cabinet ...

, before becoming Chief Scientific Adviser, Cabinet Office from 1983 to 1985. He was also a member of the

Science and Engineering Research Council The Science and Engineering Research Council (SERC) and its predecessor the Science Research Council (SRC) were the UK agencies in charge of publicly funded scientific and engineering research activities, including astronomy, biotechnology and bi ...

(SERC) from 1978 to 1981, and a member of the UK Government's

Council for Science and Technology The Council for Science and Technology (CST) is an advisory non-departmental public body of the United Kingdom government. Its role is to give advice on issues that cut across government departments to the Prime Minister, the First Minister of ...

(CST) from its inception in March 1993 to March 2000. He was elected a

Fellow of the Royal Society Fellowship of the Royal Society (FRS, ForMemRS and HonFRS) is an award granted by the Fellows of the Royal Society of London to individuals who have made a "substantial contribution to the improvement of natural science, natural knowledge, incl ...

in March 1978. Nicholson then re-joined the private sector, becoming a director of

plc and

plc in 1986; and BP plc in 1987, where as chairman of the remuneration committee until 2005 he was several times the target of public criticism for approving steep increases in executive pay. Nicholson was elected a member of the US

National Academy of Engineering The National Academy of Engineering (NAE) is an American Nonprofit organization, nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. It is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM), along with the National Academ ...

in 1983, with a citation for his leadership in government/industry engineering policy, in bio-engineering, in theory of

precipitation hardening Precipitation hardening, also called age hardening or particle hardening, is a heat treatment technique used to increase the yield strength of malleable materials, including most structural alloys of aluminium, magnesium, nickel, titanium, and so ...

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 The National Energy Foundation (NEF) is an independent British charity, established to improve the use of energy in buildings. Aims The charity aims to ''improve the use of energy in buildings''. This statement simplified the earlier stated ...

, from its inception in 1988 until replaced by

Mary Archer Mary Doreen Archer '' formally styled'' Lady Archer of Weston-super-Mare and '' more commonly known as'' Dame Mary Archer, (; born 22 December 1944), is a British scientist specialising in solar energy conversion. Married to the novelist, J ...

in 1990; he remained on its board of trustees until 1996. In 1998, Nicholson published ''Science and Technology in the United Kingdom'' in the series of Cartermill Guides to World Science & Technology. Nicholson was a Member of Council of

Exeter University The University of Exeter is a research university in the West Country of England, with its main campus in Exeter, Devon. Its predecessor institutions, St Luke's College, Exeter School of Science, Exeter School of Art, and the Camborne School o ...

until 2011.

Personal life and death

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. Robin is survived by his second wife, Yvonne, whom he married on the 23rd of August, 1991. Nicholson died on 15 November 2024, at the age of 90.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nicholson, Robin 1934 births 2024 deaths People from Sutton Coldfield British metallurgists People educated at Oundle School Alumni of St Catharine's College, Cambridge Knights Bachelor Academics of the University of Manchester Fellows of Christ's College, Cambridge Fellows of the Royal Academy of Engineering Fellows of the Royal Society Members of the United States National Academy of Engineering People associated with the University of Exeter Chief Scientific Advisers to HM Government BP people