Dr. Sharon E. Nicholson is a distinguished professor of meteorology at Florida State University's Department of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Science, where she has been a faculty member since 1985 and attained full professorship in 1991. She earned her Bachelor's, Master's, and Doctoral degrees in meteorology from the University of Wisconsin–Madison, completing her PhD in 1976 with a minor in Geology. As one of the pioneering female faculty members in her department at FSU, she established herself as a leading figure in African climate research during a time when few scientists focused on this critical region. Her multilingual capabilities in German and French, along with reading proficiency in several other languages, have facilitated her extensive international collaborations across continents. Dr. Nicholson's academic journey has encompassed positions at Clark University before her long-standing and influential tenure at Florida State University.
Dr. Nicholson has made seminal contributions to our understanding of African climate systems, particularly through her groundbreaking research on rainfall patterns and desert dynamics across the continent. In collaboration with NASA scientist Compton Tucker, she conducted a comprehensive analysis of nearly two decades of Sahel satellite observations that definitively disproved the widely held belief that the Sahara Desert was expanding, demonstrating instead that desert boundaries naturally ebb and flow according to climate cycles. Her 2010 discovery of a low-level weather jet stream over Namibia, made in partnership with the Gobabeb Training and Research Centre, provided critical insights into atmospheric circulation patterns affecting rainfall distribution across equatorial and southern Africa. Dr. Nicholson's work on paleo- and historical climatology has established crucial connections between past climate variability and present-day patterns, enabling more accurate climate projections for vulnerable regions. Her research methodology integrating remote sensing data with ground observations has become a standard approach in the field of dryland climatology.
Dr. Nicholson's scholarly influence extends far beyond meteorology, significantly impacting related disciplines including hydrology, physical geography, remote sensing, arid land studies, and paleoclimatology, with one colleague noting that her contributions established FSU as the leading US institution for African climate research. She has received numerous prestigious accolades including the Humboldt Research Award, Fulbright Global Scholar award, and National Science Foundation's Faculty Award for Women, reflecting her international recognition as a world-leading researcher in dryland climatology. Her current research continues to explore the complex interactions between climate cycles and rainfall variability, particularly in the Congo Basin, building on her extensive fieldwork across multiple African nations. As a dedicated educator, Dr. Nicholson has inspired generations of students to pursue careers in meteorology and climate science, sharing her expertise through both classroom instruction and hands-on research opportunities. Her ongoing collaborations with institutions in Germany, France, and across Africa ensure that her work will continue to shape climate understanding and adaptation strategies in some of the world's most climate-vulnerable regions.
