Nigel Joyce was an aeronautical engineer who was Acting Group Leader of the Vibration and Aeroelasticity Group at the Aeronautical Research Laboratories (ARL) between 1966 and 1973. He was raised in Sydney and moved to Melbourne to work on aeronautical engineering developments as part of the war effort in World War Two. Nigel married Margaret Cooper in 1952 and the couple settled in Melbourne where they raised four children. He was a keen bush walker who also enjoyed music, theatre and reading. Nigel Joyce possessed a strong analytical mind, and his widow recalls that he characteristically had one or other mathematical problem on the go, at home as well as work.

Nigel Joyce completed a Bachelor of Engineering (Aeronautics) at the University of Sydney in 1943. As a new graduate he worked as an Assistant Design Engineer at the Commonwealth Aircraft Corporation. From February 1945 he worked as an Assistant Research Officer at the Structure and Materials section of the Commonwealth Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), Division of Aeronautics. He joined the Aeronautical and Engine Research Test Laboratory (later called the Aeronautical Research Laboratories) when it was established in February 1949, and worked there until his retirement in February 1984.

Between February 1956 and April 1957, Nigel Joyce served a secondment at the Royal Aircraft Establishment, Farnborough, Hampshire, to work on kinetic heating.

At the ARL, Nigel Joyce was an SSO or SRS [Senior Research Scientist?] until November 1966. His research topics included kinetic heating, aeroelasticity with flutter analysis of aircraft such as the Jindivik and the Canberra bomber, ground resonance testing, and the Nomad Fatigue Test.