Nouria Salehi

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Nouria Sultana Salehi AM is an Afghan‑Australian nuclear physicist, biophysicist and humanitarian. Born in Afghanistan, she studied at Kabul University and earned a PhD from Claude Bernard University in Lyon, France. She moved to Australia in 1981, just before the Soviet invasion, and worked as a nuclear physicist and biophysicist with Melbourne Health from 1983 to 2017, mainly in the Department of Nuclear Medicine at the Royal Melbourne Hospital.

In 2001 she founded the Afghan Australian Development Organisation and serves as its executive director. She also started the Afghan Australian Volunteers Association and was its president from 2002 to 2006. She has been involved with many refugee, ecumenical and human rights groups.

Salehi’s work has earned her several honors. She received the Medal of the Order of Australia in 1997 for service to human rights and to Afghan communities, refugees and women’s groups. She received the Centenary Medal in 2001 and was made a Member of the Order of Australia in 2019 for her service to Afghan, migrant and refugee communities. She was Victorian Senior Australian of the Year in 2012 and was inducted into the Victorian Honour Roll of Women in 2021. She is a life member of The Order of Australia Association (since 1997) and has been an Australia Day Ambassador since 2012.