Frances Arnold

Arnold is the Linus Pauling Professor of Chemical Engineering, Bioengineering, and Biochemistry at the California Institute of Technology. She was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2018 for pioneering directed enzyme evolution and has used directed protein evolution for applications in alternative energy, chemicals, and medicine. Her work has been recognized with the Charles Stark Draper Prize of the National Academy of Engineering (2011), the National Medal of Technology and Innovation (2011), and the Millennium Technology Prize (2016). She is an elected member of the National Academies of Science, Medicine, and Engineering and was appointed to the Pontifical Academy of Sciences by Pope Francis in 2019. Arnold served as co-chair of President Biden’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology from 2021 to 2025. Arnold earned her BS in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering from Princeton University and PhD in Chemical Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley.