Ulrike Diebold studied engineering physics at the University of Technology Vienna (TU Wien). She received her PhD in 1990, and continued as a postdoctoral researcher at Rutgers University in New Jersey until 1993. From 1993, she taught and researched at Tulane University in New Orleans, initially as Assistant Professor, from 1999 as Associate Professor and from 2001 to 2011 as Full Professor.

In 2010, she was appointed Professor of Surface Physics at the Institute of Applied Physics at the TU Wien.

Ulrike Diebold's research focuses on the structure and properties of solid surface structures. She has published extensively and has received numerous awards and honours.

She was elected as a full member of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (OeAW) in 2014 and she has been serving as the OeAW Vice President since 2022.