Charles Nickerson, Ph.D.

…understanding that there are men and women in harm’s way defending our country [I wanted to] contribute to that effort. That’s why I ended up going with CNA, because not only could I do that and be a scientist, I could do that in a very hands-on way.

Dr. Charles Nickerson, a field representative for CNA Operations Evaluation Group, serves as a research analyst in Yuma, Arizona with MAWTS-1 (the Marine Aviation Weapons and Tactics Squardon-1) and has been with CNA since 2005.

Prior to his work with MAWTS-1, Nickerson was engaged in CNA’s counter-IED (improvised explosive device) efforts, helping create a program, in conjunction with CNA’s Dr. Ciro Lopez and Dr. Ed Michlovich, that applies Bootstrap Theory to the complex problem of proving the efficacy of a specific IED counter measure – an analysis on which senior-level general officers in the Army, Navy, and Marine Corps have been briefed.

Nickerson continues to work on IED issues and continues to expand his knowledge of the most current technical details and operational uses of IEDs in Iraq and Afghanistan and of coalition countermeasures. He participates in three on-going CNA research projects related to the improvised explosive device threat (two of which focus on quantifying the impact of specific counter-IED devices employed in Iraq, and the third which measures the impact of deploying Navy electronic warfare officers in support of OIF), and is a member of the Combined Operations Analysis Group (COAG), comprised of analysts CNA, IDA, and RAND working in a collaborative counter-IED effort.

Nickerson earned his PhD in Chemistry from the California Institute of Technology where, for his thesis, he developed therapeutic strategies for preventing blindness by combining analytical chemistry, polymer physics, and biochemistry to gain a molecular-level understanding of the bio-networks of ocular tissues.

This work included the opportunity to collaborate with two diverse research teams that included biochemists, polymer chemists, polymer physicists, retinal surgeons, and MBA’s. As the tools required for making the desired measurements did not exist, Dr. Nickerson invented tooling (for which a patent is pending) and developed/validated a method for adapting traditional rheological analysis technology for use with slip-prone materials.

In an effort to gain access to the most state-of-the-art equipment, he also negotiated the acquisition of a suite of instruments and service contracts for the Kornfield research group at a savings of more than $300,000. His thesis work also provided him the opportunity to gain proficiency in several chemical and mechanical analysis methods including HPLC, Fluorescence, UV-Vis, and NMR spectroscopies, protein assays, and rheological methods.

Nickerson earned Bachelor of Science degrees in chemistry and physics from North Carolina State University, which he attended on full scholarship and from which he graduated Summa Cum Laude (from the NCSU University Honors Program). He is a member of Phi Beta Kappa, was an ARCS Foundation Scholar (2002-2005), a Tannenbaum-Sternberger Foundation Fellow (1999-2001), and is an Eagle Scout.  (Click here to see a video interview of Dr. Nickerson)