[3] In the late 1930s, a major occupation was the development of defined light sources for visual assessment of color quality.

[4] In 1936 Nickerson published the first color difference formula for industrial use, based on the addition of increments of Munsell hue, chroma, and lightness scale values.

In 1943, together with Newhall, she published realistic representations of a three-dimensional perceptually approximately uniform optimal object color solid.

Newhall, Nickerson, and Deane B. Judd and its result is known as the "Munsell Renotations," the specification of the aim colors of the current system.

Nickerson prepared plots of the Munsell colors in the CIE chromaticity diagram that remain in publication today.

[citation needed] Nickerson was the author and co-author of some 150 papers and publications, including Color measurement and its application to the grading of agricultural products, USDA Miscell.Publications 580, 1946, 62 p. Shortly before her death, Nickerson wrote an appreciation of her mentor, Alexander Ector Orr Munsell.