Louise Nicholson (academic)

Louise Frances Basford Nicholson (nee Green) is a New Zealand neuroscientist, and is professor emerita at the University of Auckland, specialising in molecular mechanisms common to neurodegenerative diseases. In 2021, Nicholson was appointed a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to neuroscience and education.

Academic career
Nicholson attended Epsom Girls Grammar School. She completed a Masters and then a PhD titled Structure and function of the Malpighian tubules of the larva of the New Zealand glow-worm Arachnocampa luminosa (Skuse) at the University of Auckland. Nicholson spent two and half years as a visiting fellow at Lady Margaret Hall in Oxford, and then returned to New Zealand, where she taught science at Mahurangi College from 1981 to 1988. Nicholson then joined the faculty of the Department of Anatomy with Radiology at the University of Auckland, initially as a senior lecturer. She was Head of Biology for Medicine in 1989. Nicholson worked on neurodegenerative diseases such as motor neuron disease, Huntington's, Parkinson's and Alzheimer's diseases. She was appointed full professor in 2009, and worked at the university for nearly 30 years, during which she spent a year at the Salk Institute.

With Simon O'Carroll and Colin Green, Nicholson founded the Spinal Cord Research Facility within the university's Centre for Brain Research. The facility is funded by the CatWalk Spinal Cord Injury Research Trust.

In 2014, after years of severe headaches, Nicholson was diagnosed with a brain tumour, leading her to retire from research. On her retirement, she was appointed professor emerita, and she and her husband gifted $1 million towards spinal injury research.

Honours and awards
Nicholson was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship in 1978 to attend Lady Margaret Hall as a Visiting Fellow for two years. Only 32 Rhodes Visiting Fellowships were awarded.

In the New Years Honours for 2021, Nicholson was appointed a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to neuroscience and education.