Sandra Diaz
Professor of community and ecosystem ecology
Organization
National University of Córdoba
About Sandra Diaz
Sandra Díaz is a member of the NOMIS Honorary Council and a professor of community and ecosystem ecology at the National University of Córdoba in Argentina, and a senior member of the National Research Council of Argentina.
Sandra Díaz earned a PhD in biology (cum laude) from the National University of Córdoba. She founded Núcleo DiverSus on diversity and sustainability and the space on the ecology of transformations and co-founded the Global Communal Plant Trait Initiative TRY. From 2016 to 2019, she co-chaired the first Global Assessment of the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services. Diaz has been professor of community and ecosystem ecology at the National University of Córdoba since 2009.
Research Focus
Diaz is interested in plant functional traits and syndromes, their effects on ecosystem properties and their interactions with global change drivers. She constructed the first global quantitative picture of essential functional diversity of vascular plants and has advanced theory and practical implementation of the concept of functional diversity and its effects on ecosystem properties and benefits to different sectors of society. She combines her ecology studies with interdisciplinary work on how different societies value and reconfigure nature, spearheading the pluralistic concept of nature’s contributions to people.
Awards and Recognition
Recognition for Diaz’s contributions include the Ramon Margalef Prize in Ecology (2017), the Gunnerus Award in Sustainability Science (2019), the Kew International Medal (2020), the BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award in Ecology and Conservation (2021), and the Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement (2025).
