 After graduating from Broken Hill High School, he attended the University of Sydney (B.Sc., 1938; M.Sc., 1942) and then University College London (Ph.D., 1950, supervised by Sir Christopher Ingold; D.Sc., 1953).On graduation Nyholm became a High School teacher – a contractual requirement of his scholarship to university.He then joined the Eveready Battery Co as a chemist where he was frustrated that his work to make longer lasting batteries was not well received by the marketing department.