She received her Ph.D. in Stochastic Operations Research from Eindhoven University of Technology (EURANDOM) in 2002. In recent years she has been working on the analysis of complex networks, in particular, algorithms for node ranking, efficient detection of network structure, and analysis of network correlations. Her other research interests are in stochastic processes, queueing theory, and probabilistic solutions for combinatorial problems. Nelly has received several grants and awards including the Google Faculty Research Award 2012. She has been an invited visitor in INRIA (France), University of South Australia, Georgia Institute of Technology, and Columbia University.