Nalini Joshi is an Australian mathematician. She is a professor in the

School of Mathematics and Statistics A school is an educational institution designed to provide learning spaces and learning environments for the teaching of students under the direction of teachers. Most countries have systems of formal education, which is sometimes compul ...

at the

University of Sydney The University of Sydney (USYD), also known as Sydney University, or informally Sydney Uni, is a public research university located in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in Australia and is one of the country's si ...

, the first woman in the School to hold this position, and is a past-president of the

Australian Mathematical Society The Australian Mathematical Society (AustMS) was founded in 1956 and is the national society of the mathematics profession in Australia. One of the Society's listed purposes is to promote the cause of mathematics in the community by representing t ...

. Joshi is a member of the School's Applied Mathematics Research Group. Her research concerns

integrable system In mathematics, integrability is a property of certain dynamical systems. While there are several distinct formal definitions, informally speaking, an integrable system is a dynamical system with sufficiently many conserved quantities, or first ...

s. She was awarded the

Georgina Sweet Australian Laureate Fellowship The Australian Laureate Fellowship is an Australian professorial research fellowship awarded by the Australian Research Council. Up to 17 fellows are chosen each year for five-year awards. Kathleen Fitzpatrick and Georgina Sweet fellowships In 201 ...

in 2012. Joshi is also the Vice-President of the International Mathematical Union, and is the first Australian to hold this position.

Early life

Joshi was born and spent her childhood in

Burma Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John Wells explai ...

. In 2007, she described her experience growing up there:

Education

Joshi attended

Fort Street High School Fort Street High School (FSHS) is a Education in Australia#Government schools, government-funded Mixed-sex school, co-educational Selective school (New South Wales), academically selective secondary school, secondary day school, located in Petersh ...

and gained her Bachelor of Science with honours in 1980 at the University of Sydney, and her PhD at

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial Colleges, fourth-oldest ins ...

under the supervision of

Martin David Kruskal Martin David Kruskal (; September 28, 1925 – December 26, 2006) was an American mathematician and physicist. He made fundamental contributions in many areas of mathematics and science, ranging from plasma physics to general relativity and ...

. Her PhD thesis was entitled ''The Connection Problem for the First and Second

Painlevé Transcendents In mathematics, Painlevé transcendents are solutions to certain nonlinear second-order ordinary differential equations in the complex plane with the Painlevé property (the only movable singularities are poles), but which are not generally solvabl ...

.''

Career

After a

postdoctoral fellowship A postdoctoral fellow, postdoctoral researcher, or simply postdoc, is a person professionally conducting research after the completion of their doctoral studies (typically a PhD). The ultimate goal of a postdoctoral research position is to p ...

in 1987 and a research fellowship and lectureship (1988–90), both at the

Australian National University The Australian National University (ANU) is a public research university located in Canberra, the capital of Australia. Its main campus in Acton encompasses seven teaching and research colleges, in addition to several national academies and ...

, Joshi took up a lectureship at the

University of New South Wales The University of New South Wales (UNSW), also known as UNSW Sydney, is a public research university based in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It is one of the founding members of Group of Eight, a coalition of Australian research-intensive ...

in Sydney (1990–94) and was promoted to senior lecturer in 1994. In 1997, she won an

Australian Research Council The Australian Research Council (ARC) is the primary non-medical research funding agency of the Australian Government, distributing more than in grants each year. The Council was established by the ''Australian Research Council Act 2001'', ...

(ARC) senior research fellowship, which she took up at the

University of Adelaide The University of Adelaide (informally Adelaide University) is a public research university located in Adelaide, South Australia. Established in 1874, it is the third-oldest university in Australia. The university's main campus is located on N ...

, and became an associate professor/reader at that university a year later. In 2002 she moved to the University of Sydney as Chair of Applied Mathematics; since 2006 she has been director of the Centre for Mathematical Biology, from 2007 to 2009 head of the School of Mathematics and Statistics (associate head since 2010). In 2015, Joshi co-founded and co-chaired the Science in Australia Gender Equity (SAGE) program, which works to increase retention of women in

STEM Stem or STEM may refer to: Plant structures * Plant stem, a plant's aboveground axis, made of vascular tissue, off which leaves and flowers hang * Stipe (botany), a stalk to support some other structure * Stipe (mycology), the stem of a mushro ...

fields using

Athena SWAN Athena SWAN (Scientific Women's Academic Network) is a quality charter mark framework and accreditation scheme established and managed by the UK Equality Challenge Unit (now part of Advance HE) in 2005 that recognises and celebrates good practi ...

principles. Since 2016, she has served as a member of the SAGE Expert Advisory Group.

Awards and honors

Joshi was elected a

fellow of the Australian Academy of Science The Fellowship of the Australian Academy of Science is made up of about 500 Australian scientists. Scientists judged by their peers to have made an exceptional contribution to knowledge in their field may be elected to Fellowship of the Academy. ...

in March 2008, and has held a number of positions in the

, including its presidency from December 2008 to September 2010. She was also a board member of the

Australian Mathematics Trust The Australian Mathematics Competition is a mathematics competition run by the Australian Maths Trust for students from year 3 up to year 12 in Australia, and their equivalent grades in other countries. Since its inception in 1976 in the Australian ...

(2010–13) She has been on the National Committee for Mathematical Sciences since January 2010. In 2012, Joshi became a Georgina Sweet Australian Laureate Fellow, which involves the five-year project, ''Geometric construction of critical solutions of nonlinear systems''. In 2015, she was the 150th Anniversary Hardy Lecturer, an award by the

London Mathematical Society The London Mathematical Society (LMS) is one of the United Kingdom's learned societies for mathematics (the others being the Royal Statistical Society (RSS), the Institute of Mathematics and its Applications (IMA), the Edinburgh Mathematical S ...

involving an extensive series of lectures throughout the United Kingdom. She is a Fellow of the

Royal Society of New South Wales The Royal Society of New South Wales is a learned society based in Sydney, Australia. The Governor of New South Wales is the vice-regal patron of the Society. The Society was established as the Philosophical Society of Australasia on 27 June ...

(FRSN). In June 2016, she was appointed an

Officer of the Order of Australia The Order of Australia is an honour that recognises Australian citizens and other persons for outstanding achievement and service. It was established on 14 February 1975 by Elizabeth II, Queen of Australia, on the advice of the Australian Gove ...

. Joshi was elected vice-president of the

International Mathematical Union The International Mathematical Union (IMU) is an international non-governmental organization devoted to international cooperation in the field of mathematics across the world. It is a member of the International Science Council (ISC) and supports ...

in July 2018. She was recognised in the October 2019 NSW Premier's Prizes for "Excellence in Mathematics, Earth Sciences, Chemistry or Physics". In 2020, Joshi was awarded the

George Szekeres Medal The George Szekeres Medal is awarded by the Australian Mathematical Society for outstanding research contributions over a fifteen-year period. This award, established in 2001, was given biennially in even-numbered years until 2021 and has since bee ...

from the Australian Mathematical Society. She was awarded the 2021 ANZIAM Medal by Australia and New Zealand Industrial and Applied Mathematics for "unparalleled contributions to applied mathematics in leadership, gender equity, and promotion of mathematics."

References

External links

Nalini Joshi at the University of Sydney

Video
about Joshi (March 2012)

{{DEFAULTSORT:Joshi, Nalini 21st-century Australian mathematicians University of Sydney faculty Australian women mathematicians Australian people of Burmese descent Living people Fellows of the Australian Academy of Science Fellows of the Royal Society of New South Wales University of Sydney alumni Princeton University alumni University of New South Wales faculty University of Adelaide faculty Burmese emigrants to Australia 21st-century women mathematicians Year of birth missing (living people) Australian women academics 21st-century Australian women scientists Officers of the Order of Australia