Peter Nicholson, Founder and former President of the Council of Canadian Academies

Peter Nicholson, founder and former President of the Council of Canadian Academies, and former Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy in the Office of the Prime Minister of Canada. Peter Nicholson was born in 1942 in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. He holds a BSc and MSc in Physics from Dalhousie University (1965) and a Ph.D. (Operations Research) from Stanford University (1969), as well as honorary doctorates from Dalhousie University, Acadia University, the Université du Québec (INRS), and McMaster University. Between December 2003 and January 2006 Dr. Nicholson served in the Office of the Prime Minister of Canada as Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy. He became President of the Council of Canadian Academies on February 6, 2006. Between June 2002 and August 2003, Peter Nicholson was Special Adviser to the Secretary-General of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in Paris. In that role he prepared a major report on the strategic direction of the OECD, an assignment that involved extensive contact with all OECD Directorates as well as the ambassadors of member countries.Dr. Nicholson has served in a voluntary capacity on several organizations dedicated to the furtherance of science and technology in Canada. He was appointed in 1986 by the Prime Minister as an inaugural member of the National Advisory Board on Science and Technology. He was the founding Chair of the Fields Institute for Research in Mathematics; a Governor of the National Research Council; a Director and a member of the Research Council of the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research; Chair of the Canadian Institute for Telecommunication Research; and the inaugural Chair of the Members of both the Canada Foundation for Innovation and the Millennium Scholarship Foundation. Dr. Nicholson is a member of the Order of Canada, awarded in recognition of his contribution to business through both the public and private sectors.