Sandra Myrna Díaz ForMemRS (born in 1961) is an Argentine ecologist and professor of ecology at the National University of Córdoba,[2] who has been awarded with the Linnean Medal for her scientific work.

[8] During her PhD and later research Díaz developed the protocols to support scientists using functional traits to interpret ecosystems.

After reading a book by J. Philip Grime about the connection between plant strategies, ecosystem processes and environmental factors, Díaz applied to work with him in the United Kingdom.

She found that, even in the presence of fertilizer, weedy plants that grow quickly suffer from heightened levels of carbon dioxide.

[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.

[18] Díaz is also interested in the interaction between ecology and the social 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 the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS) Cozzarelli Prize.

[29] Díaz' awards and honours include: “All text published under the heading 'Biography' on Fellow profile pages is available under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.” --Royal Society Terms, conditions and policies at the Wayback Machine (archived 2016-11-11)