There is no such thing as the human race, he said. Race is a subdivision of any species, and there has been so much overlap and intermixture through gene flow that there is no human population in which every single member has a gene or gene complex that no other population has. Even if races existed in the past, there is too much genetic intermixing for them to exist today. The race concept has gotten so caught up in the popular vernacular, that when most people talk about race, they are actually referring to ethnicity or religion. Nickels and his wife, Donna, who works for the Bloomington Housing Authority, have two children Illinois State alumnae Deborah and current student Matthew.
Nickels enjoys walking, traveling and visiting historic sites and wants to start birding.
He reads science fiction and mysteries every night. For now Nickels is interested in watching the much anticipated Schroeder Hall remodeling project and serving as the first chair of the newly-established education committee he proposed for the American Association of Physical Anthropology. He will continue lecturing criminal justice students and giving seminars for groups such as coroners offices about forensic anthropology. And most of all he will continue serving the anthropology field which he still loves by teaching his students to be fascinated by what it means to be human.