Nicholai was born in New York, and is most recently from Park City, Utah. He served a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Taiwan, speaking Mandarin Chinese. Nicholai joined IDeA Labs in January 2012 and is a senior majoring in Mathematics with a minor in Computer Science. He’s a fan of the open-source movement and enjoys studying computer-hacking tactics in his free time. Nicholai’s research interests include networks and computer security, especially intruder detection.