Frances Arnold

Ms. Arnold joined the California Institute of Technology in 1986 and has served as a Visiting Associate, Assistant Professor, Professor, and Director. Ms. Arnold’s laboratory focuses on protein engineering by directed evolution, with applications in alternative energy, chemicals, and medicine.

She is the recipient of numerous honors, including the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, the Millennium Technology Prize, induction into the National Inventors Hall of Fame, Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors, the ENI Prize in Renewable and Nonconventional Energy, the U.S. National Medal of Technology and Innovation, and the Charles Stark Draper Prize of the U.S. National Academy of Engineering. Ms. Arnold is an elected member of all three U.S. National Academies of Science, Medicine, and Engineering, as well as the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Ms. Arnold serves as a director of Illumina, Inc., a provider of integrated systems for the analysis of genetic variation and biological function, since 2016, and serves as Chair of its Science and Technology Committee and as a member of the Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee; and as a director of Provivi, Inc., a privately-held agriculture pest management company.

Ms. Arnold holds a Bachelor of Science degree in mechanical and aerospace engineering from Princeton University and a Doctoral degree in chemical engineering from the University of California, Berkeley.