Diane Hildebrandt is the South African Research Chair in Sustainable Process Engineering hosted by the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, and co-Director of the Centre for Optimisation, Modelling and Process Synthesis at the same University.

She has authored or co-authored over 80 scientific papers and has supervised over 50 postgraduate students.

In 2002, Diane was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of SA. In 2003, she was elected as a member of Academy of Sciences of SA. In 2006 she was elected as a member of the Academy of Engineers of SA. In 2007 she was appointed to the SA Research Chair.