Frances Arnold

Dr. Frances Arnold is the Linus Pauling Professor of Chemical Engineering, Bioengineering, and Biochemistry at the California Institute of Technology.

Dr. Arnold pioneered directed enzyme evolution, for which she was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2018; she has used directed evolution to solve problems in alternative energy, chemicals, and medicine. Dr. Arnold received the Charles Stark Draper Prize of the U.S. National Academy of Engineering in 2011, the U.S. National Medal of Technology and Innovation from President Obama in 2013, and the Millennium Technology Prize in 2016. She has been elected to the U.S. National Academies of Science, Medicine, and Engineering and was appointed to the Pontifical Academy of Sciences in 2019. She co-founded three companies in sustainable chemistry and renewable energy (Gevo, Provivi, Aralez Bio) and serves on several private and public company boards, including Alphabet and Illumina.

Dr. Arnold earned a B.S. in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering from Princeton University and a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley.