Dr Nankivell is currently a practising nephrologist and transplant clinician working at Westmead Hospital and the National Pancreas Transplant Unit in Sydney. His MBBS was from the University of Sydney. Following his FRACP, specialising in nephrology, an MSc in pharmacology from the University of London, and two doctorates from the University of Sydney were obtained; as a PhD in the mechanisms of progression of chronic renal failure and an higher doctorate MD examining transplant graft dysfunction.

His research interests involve transplant renal function, the structural functional relationships of failing allografts, renal function estimation, the histopathology of acute and chronic rejection, calcineurin inhibitor nephrotoxicity, BK virus allograft nephropathy and the Banff schema of diagnostic transplant pathology.