Trudy Nicholls

Trudy was born and raised in England. She received her B.S. in mathematics from London University in 1967, where she also met her husband Peter. After graduation, Trudy was a programmer at Cambridge University, while Peter completed his Ph.D. in mathematics also at Cambridge. In the fall of 1971, Peter and Trudy immigrated to the United States. Peter pursued his career at Northern Illinois University where he worked for the next twenty years. In 1980, when their children were 9, 6 and 3 years old, Trudy went back to college and in 1982 she received her M.S. in computer science at Northern Illinois University.

After graduating, Trudy worked first as a systems programmer and then as an academic programmer at NIU. In 1992, she accompanied Peter to Manhattan, Kansas, where she worked for Riley county for three years and for the Kansas Farm Bureau for seven years, which included their Y2K mainframe update. When Peter moved to Colorado State University, Trudy joined their College of Veterinary Medicine as a programmer. When Peter accepted the position of provost at the University of Connecticut in 2005, Trudy concluded her career by working as a systems analyst for their University Information Technology Services. Peter and Trudy retired to California in 2013. Trudy is an active volunteer and particularly supports women’s education.

Trudy knew when she went back to college at NIU to earn her graduate degree in computer science that it would enable her subsequent career as a programmer. She hopes that her scholarship will benefit similar students.