Robert Nickell, ASME’s 118th President, Dies

Robert E. Nickell, PhD, served as ASME's 118th president from 1999 to 2000.

Robert E. Nickell, PhD, a longtime member and former president of ASME, passed away on Jan. 21 after a battle with cancer. Dr. Nickell, a resident of San Diego, Calif., was 79 years old.

Nickell, who served as ASME president from 1999 to 2000, was the founder of the consultancy Applied Science & Technology in San Diego, Calif. He made many significant contributions to the engineering profession during a career that spanned 50 years, including the development of finite element software for the analysis of solid propellant rocket motors and related structural systems, when he worked at Rohm & Haas Co. early in his career. He also conducted research on finite element analysis applied to fluid mechanics and the dynamic buckling of structures subjected to explosive loadings while at Bell Telephone Laboratories, Brown University and Sandia National Laboratories between 1968 and 1977.

Robert Nickell at the ASME Historical Mechanical Engineering Landmark re-designation ceremony for the Fresno Scraper, which was held in March 2011 in Lodi, Calif.

A private consultant since 1977, Nickell consulted for the Electric Power Research Institute starting in the late 1980s on technical issues related to extending the operating lifetime of commercial nuclear power plants. He also worked with the National Nuclear Security Administration on projects related to the maturity of technologies used in maintaining the U.S. nuclear weapons stockpile. Nickell recently provided consulting services to Kobe Steel on the design and operation of controlled detonation chambers for the destruction of chemical weapons.

In addition to his term as the 118th president of the Society, Nickell, an ASME Fellow, held numerous leadership positions within ASME during his 45 years as an enthusiastic and dedicated member and volunteer. These posts included member of the Board of Governors from 1992 to 1994, secretary/treasurer from 2001 to 2004, member of the ASME Foundation Board of Directors from 2004 to 2008, and three-term chair of the ASME Pension Plan Trustees. He also served as chair of the Pressure Vessels and Piping Division's Executive Committee, and chair of a number of Society boards, councils and committees. Nickell had also been involved in various Boiler and Pressure Vessel Code activities for more than 40 years.

Dr. Nickell was named an Honorary Member of ASME in 2014.

A recipient of the ASME Dedicated Service Award in 1987, Nickell's most recent ASME accolade came last year when he was named an Honorary Member of the Society. He received Honorary Membership, the highest level of ASME membership, for his significant contributions to the development of finite element methods for assessing material fatigue in nuclear reactor pressure vessels and piping, and the development of detonation chambers for the disposal of chemical weapons.

Nickell was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 2007, where he served as secretary of Section 10 – Mechanical Engineering from 2008 to 2010, vice chair from 2010 to 2012, and chair from 2012 to 2014. He was also a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science; a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers, the American Nuclear Society and ASTM International; and the recipient of the Naval Structural Mechanics Award from the Office of Naval Research/American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.

The author or co-author of more than 100 papers in refereed journals, Nickell also served as chair of the Mechanical Engineering magazine Advisory Board and as technical editor of the ASME Journal of Pressure Vessel Technology.

Nickell began pursuing his undergraduate studies at Fresno State University after serving in the United States Marine Corps, finishing at University of California, Berkeley, where he received his bachelor's degree in engineering science in 1963. He went on to receive two additional degrees in engineering science from UC Berkeley: a master's degree in 1964 and a PhD in 1967.

To view a video profile of Nickell, which was presented at the 2014 Honors Assembly at the ASME International Mechanical Congress and Exposition in Montreal, visit www.asme.org/engineering-topics/media/pressure-vessels/video-robert-nickell-2014-honorary-membership.