Ernest Fox Nichols

Ernest Fox Nichols (June 1, 1869 – April 29, 1924) was an

He served as the President of Dartmouth College from 1909 to 1916. In 1921, he became the president of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), but was too ill from heart disease during his brief tenure to enter actively into his responsibilities, and stepped down in 1922.^[4] On April 29, 1924, Dr. Nichols was invited to the inauguration of the new building of the American Academy of Sciences in Washington, D.C., and was reading a research paper to the audience when he collapsed and died.^[5]

Dartmouth presidency

The appointment of Ernest Fox Nichols as the 10th president in the Wheelock Succession could be seen as both a reflection of the times and a tribute to the quality of Dartmouth's faculty. A member of the physics department and its chair at the time of his appointment, Nichols' pioneering work in the measurement of radiation expanded the frontiers of knowledge at the end of the 19th century. He was the first Dartmouth president since John Wheelock who was not a member of the clergy, yet his deep appreciation of the importance of broad-based scholarship to the moral and spiritual growth of students was internationally recognized.

Many of the college's most cherished institutions and traditions took shape during the Nichols administration, including the

Ernest Fox Nichols stepped down in 1916 to become a professor of physics at Yale University and subsequently became president of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. ^[6]

See also

• Nichols radiometer

References