Sandra Díaz

Sandra Diaz is a Professor of Community and Ecosystem Ecology at Córdoba National University in Argentina, a senior member of the National Research Council of Argentina, and a Visiting Professor at the School of Geography and the Environment, Oxford University.

Díaz 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 –the global spectrum of plant form and function. She 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. She founded Núcleo DiverSus on Diversity and Sustainability, and co-founded the Global Communal Plant Trait Initiative TRY. In 2019 she co-chaired the first Global Assessment of the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services.

Recognition for Diaz’s contributions include the Senckenberg Award for Nature Research (2019), the Gunnerus Award in Sustainability Science (2019), the Kew International Medal (2020), and the BBVA Frontiers of Knowledge in Ecology and Conservation Award (2021).