Bruce J. Nicholson was born in Rockhampton, Queensland, Australia, in the middle of a hurricane, but was raised, principally, in Brisbane, the younger of two brothers. His mother was a bank teller until she wed; his father was in insurance sales until he opened his own insurance loss adjuster consultancy. Both of his parents believed in the value of a good education and encouraged both sons to excel, though in whatever direction they chose. Nicholson had a normal childhood, and learned that he had some athleticism (running track for some time). He had a general interest in science and focused on that through school, and he also enjoyed participating in school plays and debate. He matriculated at the local university (staying local was quite common in Australia), the University of Queensland from which he received his baccalaureate in science. He had his first independent research experience in John Mansbridge's laboratory, during which time he learned that he did not have the best experimental "hands"; he went on to be mentored by Burt Zerner, an enzymologist, and Robert L. Blakely, completing an honors thesis on inhibition kinetics in jack bean urease in Zerner's lab. Wanting to do graduate studies in the United States Nicholson applied to several universities, including the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) at which his brother had already matriculated for his graduate studies. He was accepted at Caltech and decided to pursue studies in neurobiology; he was initially assigned to do a rotation with John D. Pettigrew on horseradish peroxidase retroactive tracing of neuronal pathways, but then moved on to work with Jean-Paul Revel researching gap junction proteins. Nicholson remained at Caltech for his postdoctoral studies, and also worked with Norman Davidson; he sequenced connexin 26. From Caltech he moved on to a faculty position at the State University of New York, Buffalo, where he worked with Daniel B. Gros to publish evidence of the existence of more than one gap junction protein. For the remainder of the interview, Nicholson talks about trying to alert the scientific community to the importance of gap junction research; difficulties in crystallizing gap junction proteins; his collaboration with Klaus Willecke, and the generosity of David L. Paul, Eric C. Beyer, and Willecke; and his policies on authorship in collaborations. He ends the interview with a discussion of the benefits of being a Pew scholar; the importance of electrophysiology in gap junction research; using mutagenesis to analyze the structure and function of connexins; the relationship of cell coupling to cell transformation; and the importance of his wife and family.