Richard Nichols

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.

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. Byrne & Nichols (1999) Culex pipiens in London underground tunnels: differentiation between surface and subterranean populations Groombridge, Jones, Bruford & Nichols (2000) Ghost alleles of the Mauritius kestrel Metheringham, Plumb, Flynn, Stocks, Kelly, Nemesio Gorriz, Grieve, Moat, Lines, Buggs & Nichols. Rapid polygenic adaptation in a wild population of ash trees under a novel fungal epidemic