How Did Frances Arnold Forge Her Own Path?

National Inventors Hall of Fame^® Inductee Frances Arnold has described herself as a “born engineer.” Find out how her independent spirit and love of science led her to spark the development of evolution-based approaches to biomolecular engineering and make a revolutionary impact across a wide array of industries.

A Sense of Adventure

Since childhood, Arnold was driven to be independent and to pursue new adventures. She left her parents’ home while she was still in high school and worked a number of different jobs. “I wanted to find my own way in life,” she said. “I was 15, but I knew I could make a living. I worked in a pizza parlor, I was a cocktail waitress, I drove a taxicab. And I found that independence was what I needed.”

From moving to Italy at age 20 to traveling across South America on local buses, Arnold was never afraid to do things on her own. “I wanted to see the world,” she explained. “Curiosity and a sense of adventure drove me.”

Her continued interest in STEM subjects inspired her to enroll in college, and she earned acceptance into Princeton University at a time when few women studied there. She earned her bachelor’s degree in mechanical and aerospace engineering in 1979 and then enrolled at the University of California, Berkeley, where she received her doctorate in chemical engineering in 1985 and did postdoctoral work in biophysical chemistry.

A Paradigm Shift

In 1986, Arnold joined the chemical engineering faculty at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech). Here, she began the work that would lead to a transformative approach to bioengineering. Applying principles of genetic change and artificial selection, Arnold accelerated the evolution of proteins – especially enzyme catalysts – in the laboratory.

“I love enzymes,” Arnold said in an interview with the National Inventors Hall of Fame^®. “Enzymes catalyze reactions. They’re the best catalyst that you can find on this planet. Four billion years of trial and error and evolution created a spectacular set of catalysts.”

Arnold conducted the first directed evolution of enzymes in the early 1990s. Because enzymes evolved in the laboratory have capabilities beyond those found in nature, the results of her work could be applied to solve an array of chemical problems, including developing new biological routes to making products from laundry detergents to industrial and consumer chemicals to biofuels to new drugs. Her methods are now used in hundreds of labs across the world.

Describing her work in a simple but powerful way, Arnold said, “I take what nature creates and make it do new things that we want.”

Arnold co-founded Gevo Inc. in 2005 to make fuels and chemicals from renewable resources; Provivi Inc. in 2014 to develop nontoxic approaches to agricultural pest control; and Aralez Inc. in 2019 to create sustainable biocatalytic processes for making medicines and chemicals. She currently serves as the Linus Pauling Professor of chemical engineering, bioengineering and biochemistry at Caltech, and her primary focus is on renewable energy and sustainable chemistry.

For her revolutionary work, Arnold was awarded the 2011 National Medal of Technology and Innovation. She also became the first woman to win the Draper Prize in Engineering in 2011 and the first woman awarded the Millenium Technology Prize in 2016. In 2018, she became the first American woman to be awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

A Fulfilling Path

Reflecting on the work she’s done so far, Arnold said, “I think there’s a huge satisfaction to coming up with solutions to problems, and especially to problems that really make a difference in people’s lives. I can’t imagine a more satisfying career than being able to do that.”

As she looks toward the future, Arnold is eager to discover new possibilities. “I’m particularly excited about the future and how biology can be used to cure disease, or to make renewable fuels and chemicals,” she said. “There are so many possibilities for using the products of the biological world to make the things we use in our daily lives and do so cleanly and sustainably. There are so many ways this technology could be used to improve our futures.”

Arnold encourages the next generation of creators, innovators and problem solvers to embrace diversity and exploration. “If you simply follow the same path as the others, you won’t have a chance to forge your own,” she advised. “A lack of diversity, of experiences and of thinking, stymies innovation. Evolution teaches us that without diversity, we go extinct. And one way to be innovative, and the way to find what you love to do, is to try different things. Trying different things served me very well.”

A One-of-a-Kind Story

To hear Arnold tell her story in her own words, watch this video created by the National Inventors Hall of Fame. Shot at Caltech, it offers a unique look into Arnold’s life and work.

To explore more of Arnold’s story, visit our website.