Nicholas is a marine biologist who started his career tagging toothed whales to study changes in spatial behaviour and social cohesion resulting from human disturbance. At IUCN, he leads the execution of IUCN science and knowledge projects developing science-based targets for biodiversity and deploying global datasets to analyse the interactions between biodiversity and key human interfaces such as violent conflict, migration, synthetic biology and palm oil. A lead author on the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services Americas Assessment, Nicholas came to IUCN from the US National Academy of Sciences, where he assessed restoration monitoring efforts following the Deep Water Horizon oil spill and analysed the cumulative impacts of stressors on marine mammals. He holds a PhD in Biology and Oceanography from MIT and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, a Masters in Technology and Policy from MIT, and a BA in Psychology and Neuroscience from Princeton University.
