ProfessorMandana (Mandy) Nikpour

Professor Nikpour is the Executive Chair of the Australian Scleroderma Interest Group (ASIG; the major body for scleroderma research in Australia - www.asigresearch.com.au) and is a co-founding member of the executive steering committees of the Asia-Pacific Lupus Collaboration (13 countries) established in 2012, now the world’s largest multi-centre lupus cohort study (www.asiapacificlupus.com). She is a steering committee member of the Australian Lupus Registry and Biobank (ALRB; www.lupusregistry.com). Professor Nikpour founded and Chairs the RESOURCE Consortium of researchers quantifying the frequency, resource utilisation and outcomes of rheumatologic conditions in Australia.  Professor Nikpour is co-chair of several Working Groups of the International Scleroderma Clinical Trials Consortium and in this capacity has led the development of outcome measures of disease activity and damage for use in scleroderma clinical trials, the development of Classification Criteria for Scleroderma Heart Involvement and Expert Guidelines for Cancer Screening in Scleroderma. Her research collaborations span multiple disciplines (cardiology, respiratory, radiology, gastroenterology, hematology, dermatology, orthopaedics, health economics and occupational health) and multiple sites in Australia and abroad, including Canada, USA, Europe and Asia. She has served as Deputy Chair of the ARA Research Committee, playing a significant role in determining the organisation’s research strategy. Professor Nikpour is a steering committee member of the Asia-Pacific League of Associations for Rheumatology (APLAR) Scleroderma Special Interest Group, facilitating collaborative scleroderma research in the region.

Her international standing is evidenced by dozens of invited international plenary and keynote presentations including the Systemic Sclerosis World Congress 2026 and the Asia-Pacific League of Associations for Rheumatology (APLAR) Congress 2026. Professor Nikpour is Director of SydneyMSK, one of only seven research Flagship centres of the Faculty of Medicine and Health, University of Sydney. In this role, she leads the strategic vision and operations of a centre comprised of over 400 researchers across the University of Sydney and its affilaited Local Health Districts, presently ranked third globally for output and impact in musculoskeletal and rheumatic disease research.