Publications

Research papers

• Nicholls, DC, Dopita, MA, Sutherland, RS, Jerjen, H, & Kewley, LJ "Metal-poor Dwarf Galaxies in the SIGRID Galaxy Sample. II. The Electron Temperature-Abundance Calibration and the Parameters that Affect it" Astrophysical Journal 790, 75 *
  
• Nicholls, DC, Dopita, MA, Sutherland, RS, Jerjen, H, Kewley, LJ & Basurah, H. (2014) "Metal-poor Dwarf Galaxies in the SIGRID Galaxy Sample. I. H II Region Observations and Chemical Abundances" Astrophysical Journal 786, 155 *
  
• Nicholls DC, Jerjen, H, Dopita MA, & Basurah, H. (2014) "Nebular Metallicities in Two Isolated Local Void Dwarf Galaxies", Astrophysical Journal 780, 88 *
  
• Nicholls DC, Dopita MA, Sutherland RS, Kewley, LJ & Palay, E. (2013) "Measuring nebular temperatures: the effect of new collision strengths with equilibrium and kappa-distributed electron energies", Astrophysical Journal Supplement 207, 21 *
  
• Nicholls DC, Dopita MA, & Sutherland RS (2012) "Resolving the electron temperature discrepancies in HII Regions and Planetary Nebulae: kappa-distributed electrons", Astrophysical Journal 742, 148 *
  
• Nicholls DC, Dopita MA, & Jerjen H (2011)"The Small Isolated Gas-rich Irregular Dwarf (SIGRID) Galaxy Sample: Description and First Results", Astronomical Journal,
  142, 83 *
  
• Nicholls DC & Stewart ICF (1974) "The location of meteorite impacts by seismic methods", Meteoritics 9 (3) 223 *
  
• Nicholls DC, Evans WFJ & Llewellyn EJ (1972) "Collisional relaxation and rotational intensity distributions in spectra of aeronomic interest", Journal of Quantitative Spectroscopy and Radiative Transfer 12 549 *
  
• Sweet SM, Drinkwater MJ, Meurer G, Bekki K, Dopita MA, Kilborn V, & Nicholls DC, "CHOIRS H I Galaxy Groups: The Metallicity of Dwarf Galaxies", (2014) Astrophysical Journal, 782, 35 *
  
• Binette L, Matadamas R, Hägele GF, Nicholls DC, Magris C. G, Peña-Guerrero MÁ, Morisset C, Rodríguez-González A (2012) "Discrepancies between the [OIII] and [SIII] Temperatures in HII Regions" Astronomy & Astrophysics, 547, 29 *
• López-Sánchez AR, Dopita MA, Kewley LJ, Zahid HJ, Nicholls DC, Scharwächter J (2012) "Eliminating Error in the Chemical Abundance Scale for Extragalactic H II Regions", MNRAS, 426, 2630 *
  
• Teodoro M & 25 co-authors, (2012) "He II lambda-4686 in Eta Carinae: Collapse of the Wind-Wind Collision Region during Periastron Passage", Astrophysical Journal, 746, 73 *
  
• Mathewson DS & Nicholls DC (1968) "The Local Spiral Arm magnetic field", Astrophysical Journal (Letters) 154, L11 *
  
• Harrison AW, Llewellyn EJ & Nicholls DC (1970) "Night airglow hydroxyl rotational temperatures", Canadian Journal of Physics 48 1766
  
• Wood FQ, Nicholls DC & Meek VL (1993) "The importance of 'seed' research funds in science and technology: an Australian case study", Australian Educational Researcher 20 83
  
• Nicholls DC (2001) "Fractal ferns", Pteridologist, 3 (6) 149 **

* refereed paper
** invited paper

Ph D Thesis

• "Nebular Metallicities in Isolated Dwarf Irregular Galaxies" (Australian National University, accepted 21 July, 2014) [PDF file. 15.1MB]

Thesis related papers

Presentations and proposals

• My PhD thesis defence presentation, 13 February 2014 [PDF]
• My PhD thesis proposal, submitted on 6 November 2009 [PDF]
• Notes for Stellar Lunch on 24 November 2009 [PDF]
• Keynote/Powerpoint slides for Thesis Proposal presentation, 4 December 2009 [PDF]
• Keynote presentation on HII region electron distributions delivered at the conference "Oxygen in the Universe" in Tenerife, Spain, May 2012

MSc Thesis

• "Hydroxyl Rotational Temperatures in the Airglow" (University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, 1972) [PDF file. 3.1MB] [The file has been optically character recognised, but it is unlikely this is accurate for equations, numbers and greek symbols]

Media, Radio & TV

2013

An article about my work in the ANU ScienceWise magazine.

2012

My recent work on non-equilibrium electron energy distributions in HII regions in dwarf galaxies led to an ANU media release. This was picked up by WIN News and ABC Local Radio. It was also published in several online media outlets: The Register, ABC Science Online, Science Bulletin, Science Alert, The Daily Galaxy, SciTech Daily and e!Science News.

2011

In July 2011, I had the opportunity to talk on Channel Seven's Sunrise program about the coming sunspot cycle and whether the sunspots might be disappearing, and if so, whether this might cool the Earth's climate. My first TV broadcast [no longer available online].

2009

Adi Chopra and I starred as guests on the 2XX-FM science radio program "Fuzzy Logic" on 20 December 2009. Here is the link to the mp3 file (first few minutes missing - as the track starts we were talking about the Ashen Light glow on the dark side of Venus, which was initially attributed to celebrations for a new ruler of the planet. This happened rather too often to inspire confidence in the stability of the Venusian Government).

Government reports

• "Asbestos as an Environmental Hazard", Department of Science and Environment, 1979
• "An Evaluation of the Bilateral Science and Technology Collaboration Program", Department of Industry, Technology & Commerce, 1993

Books

• "Playing with Fire. Tapping the Power of Macromedia Fireworks" Wiley, 2001. (with Linda Rathgeber)
• Chapter: "Accessibility: Seeing as Others See, or Otherwise" in Dreamweaver MX Magic, New Riders, 2002.

Qualifications

Degrees

• B Sc (Hons), Australian National University, 1968
• M Sc, University of Saskatchewan, Canada, 1971 (by thesis)
• PhD, ANU (submitted)

Fellowships and memberships

• Fellow of the Australian Institute of Physics (elected March 1992).
• Member of the Astronomical Society of Australia (April 2009)
• Member of the Australian Academy of Science National Committee on Astronomy, 1994-1998
• Member of the Australian Institute of Physics Strategic Plan Implementation Committee
• Board Member of the National Informational Technology Council Inc., 1985-1988.
• Member, American Association of Variable Star Observers
• Member, Canberra Astronomical Society
• Visitor, John Curtin School of Medical Research, ANU, 2004-2006

Prizes

• Best published research paper by a student, Research School of Astronomy & Astrophysics, ANU, 2013