Henry Wieghorst Nissen was born in Chicago, Illinois on February 5, 1901. He graduated with a B.A. in English from the University of Illinois in 1923 and a Ph.D. in Psychology from Columbia University in 1929. He was chosen to be a Research Associate at the Yale University Laboratories of Comparative Psychobiology where he subsequently began field studies of chimpanzees in French Guinea. Along with fieldwork and experimentation, Nissen instructed graduate students and assumed administrative duties at the laboratories. Nissen was named Assistant Director of the Yale Laboratories of Primate Biology in 1939 (renamed the Yerkes Laboratories of Primate Biology in 1942) in Orange Park, Florida. Nissen was named Director in 1955 and remained in that post following Emory University's acquisition of the Yerkes Laboratories in 1956. Nissen died suddenly in 1958 of a heart attack.
From the description of Henry Wieghorst Nissen papers, 1921-1959. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 776220513
