[1] He was born near Omagh, County Tyrone and educated at University College Dublin (BA 1909, MA 1910, BSc 1911, MSc 1912).
In 1920, he succeeded McClelland as Professor of Experimental Physics, guiding research into atmospheric electricity and aerosols.
Together with his brother, Patrick J. Nolan, and their students, they studied ionization, equilibrium and the relationships of small and large ions in the lower atmosphere.
[4] When the School of Cosmic Physics was established at the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies in 1947, John J. Nolan was appointed as its inaugural Chairman.
thesis under Nolan was on "The Effect of Water Vapour on the Diffusion Coefficients and Mobilities of Ions in the Air,"[9]