Like his older brother, physicist John James Nolan, he specialised in atmospheric physics.
[3] In 1922, he married Una Hurley from near Bantry, County Cork, a younger sister of his brother John's wife.
From 1921 to 1928 he held the post of Lecturer on Experimental Physics at St Patrick's College in Maynooth.
In the 1930s and 1940s, he worked alongside his brother John, and numerous post graduate students, studying ionization, and atmospheric electrical parameters.
[7] Nolan Served on the Governing Board of the School of Cosmic Physics at the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies from 1947-1981.