A biography for Frances Arnoldhasn’t been written yet.
“I get these students who come in and say, I want to help people. I say, people get plenty of help. Why don't you help the planet?”
“Proteins aren't designed, they're evolved.”
“What we need is a strong education system that allows creativity to grow and encourages students to be interested in science and technology.”
“I care about this beautiful planet that we all share. This is a home that we have to leave in good shape for the next generations.”
“I wanted to make enzymes that would solve human problems, not just problems for a cell that makes them.”
“There are lot of brilliant women in chemistry, a little later than some of the men, but they are amazing.”
“Only by ignorance is science threatened.”
“My laboratory uses evolution to design new enzymes. No one really knows how to design them - they are tremendously complicated. But we are learning how to use evolution to make new ones, just as nature does.”
“When I started engineering proteins I didn't know how hard it would be.”
“I was very head-strong, and this was the Vietnam War era - You did not listen to your parents or other authority figures. You didn't share their values. No one did in my circle. It was OK to rebel.”
“Using the power of protein engineering and evolution, we can convince enzymes to take what they do poorly and do it really well.”
“I studied mechanical engineering at Princeton and worked on solar energy after graduation.”
“My feeling is that we can genetically encode almost any kind of chemistry. We just have to learn how to do that.”
“I did all sorts of things that you wouldn't normally find on an engineer's docket, but it made an educated person out of me.”
“Give up the thought that you have control. You don't. The best you can do is adapt, anticipate, be flexible, sense the environment and respond.”
“I know how to do science. I know how to make things. I don't know how to run a company. Now that's a really tough job.”
“Most innovative things are not obvious to other people at the time. You have to believe in yourself. If you've got a good idea, follow it even though others tell you it's not.”
“I was lucky to be passionate about a field that was full of opportunity.”
“I was employed at the Solar Energy Research Institute in the late '70s when Carter was president, and as a country, we had a goal of renewable energy development.”
“All my projects are about sustainability, bioremediation, making things in a cleaner fashion.”