Frances Arnold, the Dick and Barbara Dickinson Professor of Chemical Engineering, Bioengineering, and Biochemistry at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, has been selected to receive the 2017 Achievement Award from the Society of Women’s Engineers. The award is presented annually to a “woman who has made an outstanding technical contribution for at least 20 years in a field of engineering.”
Dr. Arnold stated that “receiving this award is such an honor, given all the tremendous contributions women engineers have made to improving our health, our environment, and our prospects for a sustainable future.”
Last year, Professor Arnold was awarded the Millennium Technology Prize from the Technology Academy of Finland. Professor Arnold was the first woman to win the award, which comes with a €1 million prize.
Professor Arnold is one of only a few individuals who have been elected to all three branches of the National Academies. Dr. Arnold is a graduate of Princeton University, where she majored in mechanical and aerospace engineering. She holds a Ph.D. in chemical engineering from the University of California at Berkeley. She joined the faculty at CalTech in 1987 and was promoted to full professor in 1996.