Richard A. Nichols

Richard Nichols
Alma materUniversity College London
University of East Anglia (PhD)
Known forBalding–Nichols model
Scientific career
InstitutionsQueen Mary University of London
ThesisThe ecological genetics of a hybrid zone in an alpine grasshopper (Podisma pedestris) (1984)
Doctoral advisorGodfrey Hewitt

Richard Alan Nichols FLS is a British evolutionary biologist and Professor of Evolutionary Genetics at Queen Mary University of London. He is known for the Balding–Nichols model and the Beaumont and Nichols method for detecting natural selection. He developed statistical methods to allow the accurate use of DNA fingerprinting in criminal justice. He co-led a ground-breaking study that detected natural selection acting on ash dieback resistance, a highly polygenic trait.

Richard Nichols was Editor-in-Chief of Heredity (journal) from 2004 to 2009. He was succeeded by Roger Butlin.

He graduated with a first-class degree in zoology from University College London in 1981 and completed his PhD at the University of East Anglia in 1984 under the supervision of Godfrey Hewitt.