James Nichols attended Revelle College at the University of California, San Diego for his Bachelor of Arts degree and completed a Masters of Science and Doctorate in biochemistry at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign Campus. His postdoctoral education was conducted in the Clinical Chemistry Training Program at the Mayo Clinic. He is certified by the American Board of Clinical Chemistry in both Clinical and Toxicological Chemistry.

Dr. Nichols is currently an Assistant Professor of Pathology at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, and Associate Director of the Clinical Chemistry Division and Director of Point-of-Care Testing at Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions. His research interests span laboratory automation, therapeutic drug monitoring/toxicology, information management, clinical outcomes assessment, and point-of-care testing. Dr. Nichols and colleagues hold three patents for software to collect and manage data generated from POCT devices. Dr. Nichols consults and has presented on various aspects of his research, and he has testified as an expert witness in court cases involving laboratory results.

Jim is an active member of several academic societies including the American Association for Clinical Chemistry (AACC), the Academy of Clinical Laboratory Physicians and Scientists, American Society of Clinical Pathologists (ASCP), Association of Clinical Scientists, Clinical Laboratory Management Association (CLMA), International Federation of Clinical Chemistry (IFCC), International Association of Therapeutic Drug Monitoring and Clinical Toxicology, National Academy of Clinical Biochemistry (NACB) and Phi Lambda Upsilon Honorary Chemical Society. He has twice served as Chair and as the Legislative Liaison to the Capital Section of the AACC.

Dr. Nichols is currently on the AACC National Nominating and the Distance Learning Committees. He serves on the Newsletter Editorial Committee and Nominating Committee for the AACC Therapeutic Drug Monitoring and Clinical Toxicology Division, and is on the Nominating Committee for the AACC Critical Care Testing Division. Dr. Nichols is currently the Chair of the AACC Therapeutic Drug Monitoring and Clinical Toxicology Laboratory Improvement Program and Chair of the AACC Point-of-Care Testing Division. He is also on the Long Range Planning Committee for the NACB