Sandra Díaz is a professor of ecology at Córdoba National University and a senior member of the National Research Council of Argentina. She has advanced theory and practical implementation of the concept of functional diversity and its effects on ecosystem properties and benefits. She combines her plant ecology studies with interdisciplinary work on how different societies value and reconfigure biological communities and ecosystems.

She founded Núcleo DiverSus on Diversity and Sustainability and co-founded the Global Communal Plant Trait Initiative TRY. She co-chaired the seminal Global Assessment of the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services.

She is a member of the National Academy of Sciences of Argentina, U.S. National Academy of Sciences, French Academy of Sciences, Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters, and the World Academy of Sciences and a Foreign Member of the Royal Society. Her awards include the Cozzarelli Prize (2008), the Margalef Prize in Ecology (2017), the Gunnerus Award in Sustainability Science (2019), and the BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award (2021).