Nalini Joshi
{{short description|Australian mathematician}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2020}}
{{Infobox scientist
|name = Nalini Joshi
| honorific_suffix = {{post-nominals|country=AUS|size=100%|AO}}
|image = NaliniJoshiSmall.jpg
|caption = Nalini Joshi in 2014
|birth_name =
|birth_date =
|birth_place = Yangon, Myanmar
|death_date =
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|residence =
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|nationality = Australian
|fields = Mathematics, integrable systems
|workplaces = University of Sydney
University of Adelaide
University of New South Wales
|alma_mater = Princeton University
|thesis_title = The Connection Problem for the First and Second Painlevé Transcendents
|thesis_url = https://www.researchgate.net/publication/34676766_The_connection_problem_for_the_first_and_the_second_Painleve_transcendents
|thesis_year = 1987
|doctoral_advisor = Martin David Kruskal
|academic_advisors =
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|notable_students =
|known_for = Research in integrable systems
|influences =
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|awards = {{Plainlist |
- Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science (2008)
- Georgina Sweet Fellowship (2012)
- Hardy Lecturer (2015)
- Officer of the Order of Australia (2016)
- George Szekeres Medal (2020)
- ANZIAM Medal (2021)
}}
|signature =
|footnotes =
}}
Nalini Joshi {{post-nominals|country=AUS|AO}} is an Australian mathematician. She is a professor in the School of Mathematics and Statistics at the University of Sydney, the first woman in the School to hold this position, and is a past-president of the Australian Mathematical Society.{{cite web|url=http://www.usyd.edu.au/news/84.html?newsstoryid=1728|title=A good head for figures|publisher=University of Sydney|date=18 May 2007|access-date=20 January 2018}}
{{cite news |url=http://sydney.edu.au/news/84.html?newsstoryid=2897 |title=Nalini Joshi elected President of Australian Mathematical Society |last=Gill |first=Katynna |date=9 December 2008 |access-date=20 January 2018 |publisher=The University of Sydney }}
Joshi is a member of the School's Applied Mathematics Research Group. Her research concerns integrable systems. She was awarded the Georgina Sweet Australian Laureate Fellowship in 2012. Joshi is also the Vice-President of the International Mathematical Union, and is the first Australian to hold this position.{{Cite web |title=International Mathematical Union honours Nalini Joshi |url=https://www.royalsoc.org.au/blog/imu-honours-nalini-joshi |access-date=2022-07-25 |website=The Royal Society of NSW|date=2 August 2018 }}
Early life
Joshi was born and spent her childhood in Burma.
In 2007, she described her experience growing up there:
{{Quote
|text=My father was in the army and I grew up near jungles with wild animals. I had the freedom to explore all day long so long as I went to school and that's what I actually seek every time I look at mathematics; it's an adventure, an exploration, forging new paths into territories nobody else has looked at before.
|author= Nalini Joshi
}}
Education
Joshi attended Fort Street High School and gained her Bachelor of Science with honours in 1980 at the University of Sydney, and her PhD at Princeton University under the supervision of Martin David Kruskal.
Her PhD thesis was entitled The Connection Problem for the First and Second Painlevé Transcendents.{{cite web |url=https://www.genealogy.math.ndsu.nodak.edu/id.php?id=68300 |title=Nalini Joshi |website=Mathematics Genealogy Project |access-date=20 January 2018 }}
Career
After a postdoctoral fellowship in 1987 and a research fellowship and lectureship (1988–90), both at the Australian National University, Joshi took up a lectureship at the University of New South Wales in Sydney (1990–94) and was promoted to senior lecturer in 1994.
In 1997, she won an Australian Research Council (ARC) senior research fellowship, which she took up at the University of Adelaide, 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).{{cite web |url=http://www.maths.usyd.edu.au/u/nalini/history.html |title=N. Joshi: Brief History |publisher=University of Sydney |date=12 May 2015 |access-date=20 January 2018 }}
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 fields using Athena SWAN principles.{{cite web |url=http://www.sciencegenderequity.org.au/sage-pilot/diversity-innovation-nalini-joshi/ |title=Diversity Leads to Innovation: Interview with Professor Nalini Joshi |website=Science in Australia Gender Equity |date=18 December 2015 |access-date=20 January 2018 }}
Since 2016, she has served as a member of the SAGE Expert Advisory Group.{{cite web |url=http://www.sciencegenderequity.org.au/sage-expert-advisory-group/ |access-date=20 January 2018 |website=Science in Australia Gender Equity |title=SAGE Expert Advisory Group |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200419214126/http://www.sciencegenderequity.org.au/sage-expert-advisory-group/ |archive-date=19 April 2020 |url-status=dead }}
Awards and honors
Joshi was elected a fellow of the Australian Academy of Science in March 2008, and has held a number of positions in the Australian Mathematical Society, including its presidency from December 2008 to September 2010.
She was also a board member of the Australian Mathematics Trust (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.{{cite web|url=http://sydney.edu.au/science/people/nalini.joshi.php|title=Professor Nalini Joshi|publisher=University of Sydney|access-date=20 January 2018}}{{cite web |url=http://www.arc.gov.au/pdf/FL12/NALINI%20JOSHI.pdf |title=Professor Nalini Joshi: Geometric construction of critical solutions of nonlinear systems |publisher=Australian Research Council |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121004235232/http://arc.gov.au/pdf/FL12/NALINI%20JOSHI.pdf |archive-date=4 October 2012 |access-date=20 January 2018}}{{cite web|url=http://sydney.edu.au/news/research_support/2379.html?newsstoryid=9728|title=Three Sydney researchers acknowledged with Australian Laureate Fellowships|publisher=University of Sydney|date=30 July 2012|first=Verity|last=Leatherdale|access-date=16 August 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160309183304/http://sydney.edu.au/news/research_support/2379.html?newsstoryid=9728 |archive-date=9 March 2016 |url-status=dead }}{{cite web |url=http://www.arc.gov.au/profiles-georgina-sweet-fellows#Joshi |access-date=20 January 2018 |title=Profiles: Georgina Sweet Fellows |website=Australian Research Council }}
In 2015, she was the 150th Anniversary Hardy Lecturer, an award by the London Mathematical Society involving an extensive series of lectures throughout the United Kingdom.{{cite web|url=http://www.lms.ac.uk/content/lms-150th-anniversary-hardy-lecture-tour|title=LMS 150th Anniversary Hardy Lecture Tour|publisher=London Mathematical Society|date=2 March 2015|first=Jesse|last=Garrick|access-date=20 January 2018}} She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of New South Wales (FRSN).{{Cite web|url=https://www.royalsoc.org.au/about-us/fellows|title=Fellows – The Royal Society of NSW|website=royalsoc.org.au|date=18 November 2015 |access-date=27 June 2018}} In June 2016, she was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia.{{cite web|url=https://www.gg.gov.au/sites/default/files/files/honours/qb/qb2016/nS_29ods1A/1_%20O%20of%20A%20Gazette(1).pdf|title=The Queen's Birthday 2016 Honours List|access-date=20 January 2018|date=13 June 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161009145416/https://www.gg.gov.au/sites/default/files/files/honours/qb/qb2016/nS_29ods1A/1_%20O%20of%20A%20Gazette(1).pdf|archive-date=9 October 2016|url-status=dead}}
Joshi was elected vice-president of the International Mathematical Union in July 2018. She was recognised in the October 2019 NSW Premier's Prizes for "Excellence in Mathematics, Earth Sciences, Chemistry or Physics".{{Cite web|url=https://www.chiefscientist.nsw.gov.au/premiersprizes/2019-category-winners|title=2019 Category Winners – NSW Chief Scientist & Engineer|website=chiefscientist.nsw.gov.au|access-date=30 October 2019}}
In 2020, Joshi was awarded the George Szekeres Medal from the Australian Mathematical Society.{{Cite journal|title=Mathematics People - 2020 Australian Mathematical Society Awards|url=https://www.ams.org/journals/notices/202103/rnoti-p434.pdf|journal=Notices of the American Mathematical Society|volume=68|pages=436–437}} 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."{{Cite web|title=ANZIAM : The 2021 ANZIAM Medal|url=https://www.anziam.org.au/The+2021+ANZIAM+Medal|access-date=2021-12-23|website=www.anziam.org.au}}
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- [http://www.maths.usyd.edu.au/ut/people?who=N_Joshi Nalini Joshi at the University of Sydney]
- [http://vimeo.com/33615260 Video] about Joshi (March 2012)
- [http://www.smh.com.au/national/education/top-sydney-university-mathematician-nalini-joshi-laments-gender-discrimination-20160329-gnsywt.html Sydney Morning Herald 30 March 2016: "Top Sydney University mathematician Nalini Joshi laments gender discrimination"]
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Category:21st-century Australian mathematicians
Category:Academic staff of the University of Sydney
Category:Australian women mathematicians
Category:Australian people of Burmese descent
Category:Fellows of the Australian Academy of Science
Category:Fellows of the Royal Society of New South Wales
Category:University of Sydney alumni
Category:Princeton University alumni
Category:Academic staff of the University of New South Wales
Category:Academic staff of the University of Adelaide
Category:Burmese emigrants to Australia
Category:21st-century women mathematicians
Category:Year of birth missing (living people)
Category:Australian women academics
Category:21st-century Australian women scientists