Willie Nieckarz

Professor Willie Nieckarz is credited as the founder of the UWL Nuclear Medicine Technology Program. The William J. Nieckarz Scholarship in Nuclear Medicine Technology was established in 1999 by UWL alumni of the NMT program, as well as colleagues and friends of Dr. Nieckarz. Dr. Nieckarz passed away in February 2019.

William “Willie” Nieckarz grew up in Chicopee, Massachusetts, earning his bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and his Ph.D. in nuclear chemistry from Carnegie Mellon University. He served in the Army Chemical Corps from 1967 to 1969, performing research on the neutron-induced fission of lithium. He joined the chemistry faculty at UWL in 1969, quickly founding our highly successful Nuclear Medicine Technology (NMT) program and serving as its Director from1969 to 1993. Willie was very proud of the fact that the UWL NMT program has consistently ranked as one of the best in the nation, and he was unafraid to confront university administrators when he thought that our NMT students could be better served. He also was the acting Director of UWL’s Radiation Center from 1969 until his 1999 retirement. Dr. Nieckarz was promoted to Associate Professor in 1973 and Professor in 1979. He graciously returned to UWL for three years after his retirement to teach CHM 461-Nuclear His first wife, Aline, passed away in 1990. She was also a faculty member in the UWL chemistry department. They had two children, who are UWL alumni, Greg (1991 B.S. in chemistry) and Janet (1993 B.S. in biology). Willie remarried, to Marilyn, in 1994. They spent their retirement between their homes on the Washington coast and in La Crosse. He enjoyed spending time on the beach, bik­ing, history, and collecting stamps,coins and model trains.