Margaret J. Nickson was a medical doctor in the Biology Division at the University of Chicago Met Lab.
She received her M.D. from Johns Hopkins University in 1940. Following her internship at a Pennsylvanian hospital, she and her husband, Dr. James J. Nickson, joined the Manhattan Project as members of the Met Lab’s Health Group.
Margaret Nickson conducted blood tests and studied the impact of radiation on the hands of Manhattan Project workers. Specifically, Nickson examined the effect of single-dose X-rays on the nail fold area of workers’ hands and studied atrophic fissures and ridge flattening in finger impressions.
After the war, she and her husband worked at Argonne National Laboratory.