Diana Wall, an internationally respected environmental scientist and the inaugural director of Colorado State University’s School of Global Environmental Sustainability, passed away in March 2024. 

Wall was a prodigious researcher throughout her career. Her work as a soil ecologist focused on Antarctica, where she and her team showed that soil nematodes — microscopic roundworms — represent the top of the terrestrial food chain. Through the McMurdo Dry Valleys Long Term Ecological Research Project in the cold desert region of Antarctic, she and her team uncovered dramatic impacts on invertebrate communities in response to climate change as well as the key role nematode species play in soil carbon turnover. With additional work into how those small organisms survive extreme environments and other related topics, her research has inspired generations of scientists to better understand how different species and ecosystems might respond to climate change in the future.  

Wall’s lasting research legacy stretches well beyond CSU. She frequently hosted postdoctoral researchers in her lab, advised numerous grad students, and built a global community around soil ecology and sustainability through the Global Soil Biodiversity Initiative. The following is a collection of memories and thoughts from those who worked closely with Wall in academia or research. They have been lightly edited for length and clarity.