Ulrike Diebold received her PhD degree in engineering physics in 1990 from the University of Technology (TU Wien) in Vienna,
Austria. After working as a post-doc with Ted Madey at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, she joined the faculty at Tulane University where she climbed the academic ladder from tenure-track assistant professor to endowed
chair. In 2010 she returned to her alma mater, where she currently holds a full professorship at the Institute of Applied Physics.
Diebold conducts research in experimental surface science with an emphasis on metal oxide surfaces. She is particularly interested in the atomic-scale properties of these complex materials, and in unraveling their (defect) structure/reactivity
relationship. The main tool, scanning probe microscopy, is complemented by area-averaging surface spectroscopies and first-principles calculations.
Diebold has published close to 300 peer-reviewed articles, and has given over 350 invited talks. She has been elected Fellow of AVS, the American Physical Society and the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and is a member of the Austrian
Academy of Sciences; German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina; European Academy of Sciences (EURASC); Academia Europaea; and the American Academy of Arts & Sciences. Diebold holds an honorary doctorate from Brno University of Technology,
Czech Republic. She is also a recipient of several prestigious awards, including two Advanced Grants from the European Research Council (ERC); the Arthur W. Adamson Award for Distinguished Service from the American Chemical Society; and the Wittgenstein
Award, the highest research award in Austria.
Diebold serves on multiple editorial and other scientific advisory boards and is currently a reviewing editor of Science. She is the past chair of the Surface Science Division of the German Physics Society, the largest professional organization in her field.