Dr. de Mendoza is professor of microbiology and genetics at the University of Rosario and Director of the Institute of Molecular and Cellular Biology of Rosario, National Council for Scientific and Technical Research (CONICET), in Argentina. He received his Ph.D. in biochemistry in 1978 from Universidad de Tucuman in Argentina. He did postdoctoral work in the United States at the University of Illinois, Urbana–Champaign. He received the Bernardo Houssay recognition award and fellowships from the Rockefeller Foundation and the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. He is also the recipient of the 2003 award in science and technology from the Konex Foundation in Argentina, which is given to the five most outstanding scientists of the decade working in cytology and molecular biology; he also received the Argentine Chemical Society’s 2003 Alfredo Sordelli Award. In 2004, he was named National Member of the National Academy of Exact, Physical, and Natural Sciences , an organization of Argentine and foreign members who excel in science and technology. In 2006, he was named a member of the American Academy of Microbiology, and in 2007 he received the Bernardo Houssay Prize, which is awarded annually by the government of Argentina for outstanding work in the biological and health sciences. This is his second HHMI International Research Scholar award.

Diego de Mendoza studies the molecular mechanisms that bacteria use to control membrane lipid synthesis. His aims include combating deadly bacterial diseases and understanding how the transmembrane domains of a protein transmit signals across membranes.