Rinovia Simanjuntak studied at Institut Teknologi Bandung, with a BSc in 1996 and an MSc in 1998. Her Ph.D. in 2003 was from the University of Newcastle, Australia, under the supervision of the late Prof. Mirka Miller. Her research interests include distance-related problems in graphs and applications of graph theory. She served as Principal Investigator for 38 research grants in those research topics. She has written 58 articles published in peer-reviewed journals and proceedings. Since 2005, she has supervised and co-supervised fifteen Ph.D. students, nine of whom have graduated.

Rinovia was one of 100 Outstanding Women Researchers chosen by the Indonesian National Committee for UNESCO and the Indonesian Ministry of Women Empowerment in 2010. In 2016, she was awarded the FMIPA Award for Excellence in Research by the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences Institut Teknologi Bandung and the IndoMS Award by the Indonesian Mathematical Society.

Rinovia loves to sing and has toured Asia and Europe with various choirs. She is currently the mezzo-soprano of a 6-voice acapella group, the Edoens.