| 1 | Name: | Dr. Frances H. Arnold | |
| Institution: | California Institute of Technology | ||
| Year Elected: | 2018 | ||
| Class: | 1. Mathematical and Physical Sciences | ||
| Subdivision: | 103. Engineering | ||
| Residency: | Resident | ||
| Living? : | Living | ||
| Birth Date: | 1956 | ||
Linus Pauling Professor of Chemical Engineering, Bioengineering and Biochemistry at Caltech, Frances Arnold pioneered protein engineering by directed evolution, with applications in alternative energy, chemicals, and medicine. She uses evolution augmented with machine learning to circumvent our profound ignorance of how DNA encodes function and create new biological molecules. She has been recognized by induction into the US National Academies of Science, Medicine, and Engineering, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the National Inventors Hall of Fame, and the Pontifical Academy of Sciences. Her awards include the Charles Stark Draper Prize of the National Academy of Engineering (2011), the US National Medal of Technology and Innovation (2011), the Millennium Technology Prize (2016), the National Academy of Sciences’ Sackler Prize in Convergence Research (2017), and the Franklin Institute's Bower Award and Prize for Achievement in Science (2019). Frances Arnold won the 2018 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for her work on directed evolution of enzymes. Arnold pioneered the 'directed evolution' technique, which is now used by hundreds of laboratories and companies to produce more useful enzymes. Dr. Arnold chairs the Advisory Panel of the David and Lucile Packard Foundation Fellowships in Science and Engineering and is a Trustee of the Gordon Research Conferences. She co-founded Gevo, Inc. in 2005 to make fuels and chemicals from renewable resources and Provivi, Inc. in 2014 to develop non-toxic modes of agricultural pest control. | |||