 From 1952 to 1954 he was associate professor of Inorganic Chemistry at the New South Wales University of Technology.In 1954 he was elected President of the Royal Society of New South Wales.In 1955, Nyholm returned to England as Professor of Chemistry at University College London, where he worked until his death on 4 December 1971 as a result of a motorcar accident on the outskirts of Cambridge, England.