Diana Wall

University Distinguished Professor Wall is director of the School of Global Environmental Sustainability. Her research focuses on how soil biodiversity contributes to healthy, productive soils and the consequences of human activity on soil sustainability.

Her primary work is on arid ecosystems, including the Antarctic Dry Valleys and how climate change affects ecosystem processes and ecosystem services. Wall Valley, Antarctica, was named for her achievements in 2005.

Wall is an elected member of the National Academy of Sciences, a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Sciences, a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, recipient of the Ulysses Medal and the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research President’s Medal for Outstanding Achievement in Antarctic Science.

She was named the 2016 Eminent Ecologist by the Ecological Society of America and the 2013 Tyler Laureate for Environmental Achievement.

Wall is the former president of the Ecological Society of America and the American Institute of Biological Sciences. She is the former chair of the Council of Scientific Society Presidents and current chair of the Scientific Advisory Committee of the Global Soil Biodiversity Initiative.

Wall earned her B.A. in biology and her Ph.D. in plant pathology from the University of Kentucky.