Dr Frances Arnold is the Dick and Barbara Dickinson Professor of Chemical Engineering, Bioengineering and Biochemistry at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech). Her research focuses on directed evolution of enzymes and biosynthetic pathways, with applications to alternative energy, chemicals, and medicine. Frances received her bachelors degree in mechanical and aerospace engineering from Princeton University in 1979.

Frances was awarded her doctorate in chemical engineering at the University of California-Berkeley. After postdoctoral work, she joined the Caltech faculty. She has received numerous honours and awards including the US National Medal of Technology and Innovation and the Charles Stark Draper Prize of the US National Academy of Engineering. She is the only woman to be elected to membership in all three US national academies: the Institute of Medicine, the National Academy of Engineering, and the National Academy of Sciences.

An Advisory Board member of the Joint BioEnergy Institute and the Packard Fellowships in Science and Engineering, Frances also serves on the President’s Advisory Council at KAUST and is a judge for The Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering. Frances has served on the science advisory boards of numerous companies, including Gevo, Inc., which she co-founded in 2005. She has co-authored over 200 publications and is co-inventor on 36 US patents.