Rate My Professor Nalini Joshi

Nalini Joshi AO is the Payne-Scott Professor of Mathematics and Chair of Applied Mathematics in the School of Mathematics and Statistics at the University of Sydney. She earned her B.Sc. (Hons) with First Class and University Medal from the University of Sydney in 1982, followed by an M.A. in Applied Mathematics in 1984 and a Ph.D. in Applied and Computational Mathematics in 1987 from Princeton University, under the supervision of Martin D. Kruskal. Her career began as a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Australian National University in 1987, progressing to Research Fellow and Lecturer there from 1988 to 1990. She then served as Lecturer (1990–1994) and Senior Lecturer (1994–1996) at the University of New South Wales, and as an ARC Senior Research Fellow at the University of Adelaide from 1997 to 2002. Since 2002, she has been a Full Professor at the University of Sydney, holding the ARC Georgina Sweet Australian Laureate Fellowship from 2012 to 2017. She was the first woman to head the School of Mathematics and Statistics at the University of Sydney from 2007 to 2010 and served as President of the Australian Mathematical Society from 2008 to 2010.

Professor Joshi's research specializes in integrable systems, with a focus on discrete and q-difference Painlevé equations, symmetries, and asymptotic analysis. She has authored 121 peer-reviewed research papers, two research monographs published by the American Mathematical Society and Cambridge University Press, and one edited monograph. Notable publications include "Discrete Painlevé Equations", "Arithmetic dynamics of a discrete Painlevé equation" (2025), and "Dualities and symmetries in integrable systems" (2025). Her pioneering work has transformed the field of integrable systems. She has received numerous honors, including the NSW Scientist of the Year 2025—the first mathematician to receive this award—the George Szekeres Medal (2020), ANZIAM Medal (2021), Officer of the Order of Australia (2016), Vice-Presidency of the International Mathematical Union (2019–2022), and election as Member-at-Large of the IMU Executive Committee (2023–2026). Joshi serves on editorial boards for Nonlinearity (since 2020) and Studies in Applied Mathematics (since 2010), and has held leadership roles including Foundation Co-Chair of Science in Australia Gender Equity (SAGE).