Who is Sandra Diaz who will receive an honorary doctorate from UNIPO?

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On Friday, May 17, at 5 p.m., at the Aula Assidale in Santa Lucia (Via de’ Chiari 25/a – Bologna), Professor Sandra Díaz will receive an honorary doctorate in Earth, Life and Environmental Sciences.

Admission is free, with online registration, and the concert will also be broadcast live on Alma Mater’s YouTube channel.

The Argentine scientist is considered one of the most important scientific figures in the world in the environmental field, and he has made fundamental contributions to understanding the functioning of terrestrial ecosystems.

The academic ceremony will be opened by a greeting from the Rector of the University of Bologna, Giovanni Mollari, followed by speeches for the Department of Biological, Geological and Environmental Sciences from Professor Alessandro Chiarucci, honorary doctorate supporter and former Director of the Department of Biological, Geological and Environmental Sciences. The department and its current director are Professor Elena Fabbri. After the reading of the motives and the presentation of the scientific method, this will be followed by the awarding of an honorary doctorate and a judicial reading of Sandra Díaz.

Sandra Díaz, CONICET Senior Researcher at the Interdisciplinary Institute of Plant Biology (IMBIV, UNC-CONICET) and Professor of Ecology of Communities and Ecosystems at the Faculty of Exact, Physical and Natural Sciences at the National University of Cordoba, has played a prominent role in the theoretical development and practical implementation of the concept of functional diversity, which allows us By understanding the functioning of ecosystems based on the role and characteristics of the organisms that live in them.

Sandra Díaz – whose reasons we read about receiving an honorary doctorate – represents the ideal modern union between a woman with a high value in science and a person seriously committed to social progress, for a better coexistence between humanity and nature on a planetary scale. He was able to highlight the fundamental value of biodiversity to the functioning of the planetary system as well as to the well-being of humanity.

He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States, the Academy of Sciences of France, the Academy of Sciences of Developing Countries, and the National Academies of Sciences and Exact, Physical, and Natural Sciences of Argentina. She is also one of the founders of TRY, a global initiative on plant functional traits that has enabled the identification of key adaptation strategies for plants on a global scale.

He served on the Commission on the Future of the Earth, the Integrated Initiative of the International Council for Science (ICSU), and co-chaired the Global Assessment of Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES). She worked from 1994 to 2007 on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), for which she received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007, and was one of the lead authors of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment project.

In addition to the obvious scientific merit, Sandra Díaz’s cultural and social standing is also demonstrated by the numerous awards bestowed upon her, including honorary membership of the British Ecological Society (BES), and the Ramon Margalef Prize awarded to her by the government. Catalonia, nomination by Nature magazine as one of the Top 10 People of 2019, Princess of Asturias Award, Kew International Medal (awarded to people who have made a significant contribution to science and biodiversity conservation), Prize for Election of a Foreign Member of the Royal Society, Gunnerus Prize for Sustainability Science awarded to her Royal Norwegian Society of Sciences and Letters.