Diane McKnight (born March 22, 1953) is a distinguished professor of civil, environmental, and architectural engineering at the University of Colorado Boulder and a fellow at the Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research (INSTAAR).

[1] McKnight is a founding principal investigator of the National Science Foundation's Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) program in the McMurdo Dry Valleys of Antarctica.

[3] After completing her graduate studies, McKnight began working for the US Geological Survey (USGS) as a research scientist for the Water Resources Division.

[4] As part of her work with USGS, she conducted research on lakes in the blast zone of Mount St. Helens in 1980.

Her contributions to major scientific institutions include service on several National Research Council committees; service on the Water, Science and Technology Board and the Polar Research Board;[4] and tenure as president of the American Geophysical Union Biogeosciences section.