Professor Nicholas has 37 years in nature conservation and academia in East Africa, Belgium, New Zealand, UK & USA. He has developed a landscape conservation programme in northern Kenya that enjoined ethnoecological knowledge of the Samburu people with scientific approaches to increase space for wildlife, diversify livelihood bases for communities, and capacity building for the locals. He has also co-developed a Summary for Policy Makers on the trends and status of biodiversity and ecosystem services in Africa for the Inter-Governmental Plenary on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES).

Nicholas aspires to generate and share information that will lead to development, uptake and implementation of measures that support regional, transboundary and site-specific conservation goals in order to provide sustainable livelihoods for the locals and space for wildlife in the East Africa region.