astronomy

Sharon Nicholson

Sharon Nicholson is a astronomy topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Sharon Nicholson rather than just read about it. In short: Sharon E. Nicholson is a meteorology professor at Florida State University (FSU) in the Department of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Science.

Key takeaways

Sharon Nicholson belongs to astronomy; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Sharon Nicholson to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Sharon Nicholson from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Sharon E. Nicholson is a meteorology professor at Florida State University (FSU) in the Department of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Science. Nicholson has been teaching about and researching climates of Africa. Nicholson has earned the Humboldt Award, the Fulbright Global Scholar award, and a National Science Foundation Award.

Biography Sharon Nicholson got her bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degrees in meteorology at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. In 1985, she became the only female faculty member at the FSU Department of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Science, beginning as an associate professor. In 1991, she was promoted to full professor of meteorology, and as of 2020, continues to work and teach at the FSU.

Research Paired with Compton Tucker, a NASA Goddard Space Flight Center scientist, Nicholson disproved a worldwide claim about recent Sahara desert spreading. They studied nearly two decades of Sahel satellite observations to confirm that the desert ebbs and flows, but does not enlarge. Nicholson also established that the Sahara's behavior depends on climate cycles (year-to-year rainfalls and droughts). Their study was published in the journal Ambio. Nicholson also teamed up with Dorcas N. Leposo, a research meteorologist from the Botswana Meteorological Services, to establish that El Niño was the primary cause of drought and famine in Botswana. They reviewed 40 years of Southern Africa climate data to explore El Niño's impact on the region and estimate the impact of future climate change there. The Botswana government used their research to mitigate the possible effects of El Niño's onset. As an FSU professor and expert on the African climate, Nicholson visited Africa to closely study rainfall and fog. She also took part in climate change research with the National Center for Atmospheric Research, and was co-author of a study published in the journal Science. In 2010, working with the Gobabeb Training and Research Centre, Nicholson was the first to identify a low-level weather jet stream over Namibia. Working with specialists from France and Germany, Nicholson researched the jet stream's possible influence on climate in equatorial and southern Africa and its effect on rainfall in West Africa. Nicholson's research has influenced areas beyond meteorology, such as hydrology, physical geography, remote sensing, arid land studies and paleoclimatology. One of Nicholson's colleagues opined that thanks to Nicholson's contributions, FSU became recognized as the leading academic institution in the U.S. for research on the climate of Africa. Nicholson also inspired more students to get involved in the study of meteorology.

Awards In 2019, Nicholson earned a Fulbright Global Scholar Award for executing research in Namibia, France (University of Montpellier), and Germany (Karlsruhe Institute of Technology). Nicholson's study of climate over arid environments earned her the Humboldt Research Award, given by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation in Germany. In 2009, she was honored by the American Meteorological Society with the Charles E. Anderson Award. Nicholson has been awarded several grants from the National Science Foundation for her research in the Congo Basin. The National Science Foundation Faculty Award granted her $250,000 for women scientists and engineers.

References

Literature cited

External links Official CV from FSU website Oral History Interview with Sharon Nicholson conducted by Anna Doel, January 23 and 26, 2025, Niels Bohr Library & Archives, American Institute of Physics

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Sharon Nicholson

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Sharon Nicholson claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In astronomy, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Sharon Nicholson before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Sharon Nicholson ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Sharon Nicholson

In research: Sharon Nicholson appears in astronomy research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Sharon Nicholson in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Sharon Nicholson is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics American meteorologists, American women academics, Florida State University people, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Sharon Nicholson outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Sharon Nicholson in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Sharon Nicholson means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Sharon Nicholson out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Sharon Nicholson in simple terms?

Sharon E. Nicholson is a meteorology professor at Florida State University (FSU) in the Department of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Science.

Why does Sharon Nicholson matter?

Because it connects several astronomy ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Sharon Nicholson?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Sharon Nicholson.