Nobel Week Dialogue

Frances Arnold

Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2018. Frances Arnold received the chemistry prize for pioneering directed enzyme evolution methods used across medicine, consumer products, agriculture, fuels and chemicals.

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

In 2018, Arnold received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for pioneering directed evolution methods used to make enzymes for applications in sustainable chemistry across medicine, consumer products, agriculture, fuels and chemicals.

She served as co-chair of the Presidential Council of Advisors for Science and Technology (PCAST) under President Joe Biden.  Arnold has been elected to the US National Academies of Science, Medicine, and Engineering, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Philosophical Society, and the Pontifical Academy of Sciences of the Vatican.

Arnold received her B.S. in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering from Princeton University and her PhD in Chemical Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley.

More about Frances Arnold and the 2018 Nobel Prize in Chemistry

Nobel Week Dialogue Gothenburg 2025

Meet the laureate

Interview with Frances Arnold

The risk of losing free flow of ideas and people is one of the most pressing challenges for science, says 2018 chemistry laureate Frances Arnold. In this interview, she also elaborates on the importance of enzymes in healthcare, the promises of AI and the uses of “useless” knowledge in science.

A woman delivering her lecture

Frances H. Arnold delivering her Nobel Prize lecture in chemistry on 8 December 2018 at the Aula Magna, Stockholm University.

© Nobel Prize Outreach. Photo: N. Adachi