Sandra Díaz
Dra. Sandra Myrna Díaz
Born	Sandra Myrna Díaz
Alma mater	National University of Córdoba
Known for	Plant biodiversity
Awards	Ramon Margalef Prize in Ecology (2017) Foreign Member of the Royal Society (2019) Princess of Asturias Awards (2019) Kew International Medal (2020) BBVA Frontiers of Knowledge in Ecology and Conservation Award (2021) DiamondKonex Award (2023)
Scientific career
Fields	Community ecology Plant functional traits Functional diversity Global environmental change Social benefits of biodiversity[1]
Institutions	Instituto Multidisciplinario de Biología Vegetal, CONICET & National University of Córdoba University of Sheffield
Website	www.nucleodiversus.org/index.php?mod=page&id=39&lang=en

Sandra Myrna DíazForMemRS (born in 1961) is an Argentine ecologist and professor ofecology at theNational University of Córdoba,^[2] who has been awarded with the Linnean Medal for her scientific work. She studies thefunctional traits of plants and investigates how plants impact theecosystem.^[3]

Díaz is a senior member of theNational Scientific and Technical Research Council and theNational Academy of Sciences of Argentina. She is one of the 1% most cited scientists in the world.^[1][4] She was elected aForeign Member of the Royal Society (ForMemRS) in 2019^[5] and an international member of theAmerican Philosophical Society in 2022.^[6]

Díaz was born inBell Ville in the province ofCórdoba, Argentina.^[7] Her parents loved plants and she grew up in a home with big gardens.^[8]

Díaz attended theNational University of Córdoba and graduatedcum laude with a biology degree in 1984.^[8] She decided that she wanted to be an environmental scientist, and chose to pursue graduate research. She remained atNational University of Córdoba for her doctoral , earning a PhD in biological sciences in 1989.^[9] She worked withMarcelo Cabido andAlicia Acosta on plant functional traits.^[8] During herPhD and later research Díaz developed the protocols to support scientists using functional traits to interpretecosystems.^[8] Díaz was afellow atCONICET, the center for ecology and natural resources.

After reading a book byJ. Philip Grime about the connection between plant strategies, ecosystem processes and environmental factors, Díaz applied to work with him in the United Kingdom.^[8] In 1991 Díaz joined theUniversity of Sheffield as apostdoctoral research associate.^[8]

At Sheffield she studied howplant communities respond to increasing quantities ofcarbon dioxide (CO₂). She was the first to demonstrate an important feedback between plants and soil microbes under elevated carbon dioxide. She found that, even in the presence offertilizer, weedy plants that grow quickly suffer from heightened levels of carbon dioxide.^[8] At the same time,microorganisms in the soil thrived in high levels ofcarbon dioxide, indicating that there is a competition between plants and soil fornitrogen.^[10] Diaz also showed that slow-growing plants have a more positive feedback mechanism.^[11]

Díaz returned to Argentina in 1993, where she moved back into studying plant traits.^[11] She was a principal lead author to the chapter on "Rangelands in a Changing Climate: Impacts, Adaptations, and Mitigation" in the 1995 report of theIntergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).^[12] Díaz founded the Núcleo DiverSus de Investigaciones en Diversidad y Sustentatibilidad.^[13]

She has played an important role in the development and implementation of functional biodiversity.^[13] As part of CONICET Díaz developed a new methodology to quantify the functional biodiversity of plants.^[14] This tool allows scientists to evaluate the effect of biodiversity of plants and its impact on ecosystems. Díaz was the first to provide a global picture of the functional diversity ofvascular plants. She designed a database of tens of thousands of plants, using contributions of 135 scientists.^[8][15]

She explored functional trait diversity on plots of land, dividing vegetation into separate sections to simulate changes in climate and land use.^[8][16] She demonstrated that there exists a tradeoff in plant design between the fast acquisition of resources and the conservation of the resources in tissues.^[17] Plant designs can include the lifetime of their leaves, whether they grow quickly or slowly, how they reproduce and what kind of wood they have.^[8] In 2016, she presented the global spectrum of plant form and function, the first global picture plant essential functional diversity.^[18]

Díaz is also interested in the interaction between ecology and thesocial sciences, and looks at how societies value and support ecosystems^[8] and in the relationship between living plants and people. She published a mechanistic framework for connecting functional diversity in 2007, a paper which would go on to win theProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS) Cozzarelli Prize.^[19][20] She used this methodology in real-world systems, and assembled a team of social scientists and ecologists.^[8] Social scientists worked with communities to understand what they want from a particular ecosystem, and ecologists studied functional diversity and the relevant ecosystem processes.^[8] She has spearheaded the inclusive concept of nature’s contributions to people now used by Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) and the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework of the Convention on Biological Diversity.^[21]

Clarivate Analytics reported that Díaz was one of the most highly cited environmental scientists in the world.^[4] She has been a Co-Chair of the Global Assessment of theIntergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES).^{[22][23][24][25][26]} The IPBES Global Assessment was carried out by more than 150 scientists worldwide.

In 2023, Díaz was appointed byUnited Nations Secretary GeneralAntónio Guterres to the United Nations' Scientific Advisory Board.^[27]

Díaz was listed as one of theten people who mattered in science in 2019 by the journal Nature in their end of year review^[28] In 2023 she was one of the six women chosen byNature to comment on their plans forInternational Women's Day. The others wereGihan Kamel,Martina Anto-Ocrah,Jess Wade,Aster Gebrekirstos andTanya Monro.^[29]

Díaz' awards and honours include:

• 2008Ecological Society of America Sustainability Award^[30]
• 2008Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS) Cozzarelli Prize^[20]
• 2009 Elected member of theNational Academy of Sciences^[31]
• 2012 Inaugural Fellow of the Ecological Society of America^[32]
• 2013 PlatinumKonex Award in Biology and Ecology^[33][34]
• 2014Bernardo Houssay Award in Biological Sciences^[35][36]
• 2014 Honorary member award of theBritish Ecological Society (BES)^[37]
• 2017Ramon Margalef Prize in Ecology^[38]
• 2018 Nominated byNature's 10 as one of fiveones to watch in 2019.^[39]
• 2019Princess of Asturias Awards^[40]
• 2019 Elected aForeign Member of the Royal Society (ForMemRS)^[5]
• 2019Royal Norwegian Society of Sciences and Letters Gunnerus Award^[41]
• 2020BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award in the category "Ecology and Conservation Biology".^[42]
• 2022 Elected an international member of theAmerican Philosophical Society^[6]
• 2022 Awarded the 13th Kew International Medal by Kew Royal Botanic Gardens^[43]
• 2023Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh Medal from the Scottish First Minister,Nicola Sturgeon
• 2023 Platinum Konex Award in Ecology and Environmental Sciences
• 2023 Diamond Konex Award in Science and Technology^[44][45]
• 2023 Linnean Medal awarded by the Linnean Society of London^[46]
• 2025Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement^[47]

• Living people
• 21st-century Argentine women scientists
• 21st-century Argentine scientists
• National University of Córdoba alumni
• Academic staff of the National University of Córdoba
• Women ecologists
• Argentine ecologists
• Foreign associates of the National Academy of Sciences
• Foreign members of the Royal Society
• People from Córdoba, Argentina
• 1961 births
• International members of the American Philosophical Society
• Fellows of the Ecological Society of America

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