Al Maerifa Public Seminar Series
Presented Digitally by Texas A&M University at Qatar
SPECIAL GUEST
Frances H. Arnold, Ph.D.
Nobel Laureate in Chemistry, 2018
SPECIAL GUEST:
Frances H. Arnold, Ph.D.
Nobel Laureate in Chemistry, 2018
Innovation by Evolution:
Bringing New Chemistry to Life
Thursday, 25 June 2020 • 3–4 p.m.
Arabian Standard Time (GMT +3)
Presented in partnership with the American Chemical Society, Qatar Chapter
Not satisfied with biology’s vast catalyst repertoire, I want to create new enzyme catalysts and expand the chemistry of life. We use the most powerful biological design process, evolution, to optimize existing enzymes and invent new ones, thereby circumventing our profound ignorance of how sequence encodes function. I will show that we can build sustainable, biological routes to important fuels and chemicals. Evolution can also innovate, generating new enzyme catalysts, with a little insight from chemistry. Whole families of new-to-nature enzymes increase the scope of molecules and materials we can build using synthetic biology and move us closer to a sustainable world where human-invented chemistry will be genetically encoded.
Frances H. Arnold, Ph.D.
California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, U.S.A.
Nobel Laureate in Chemistry, 2018
Frances Arnold is the Linus Pauling Professor of Chemical Engineering, Bioengineering and Biochemistry at the California Institute of Technology. Arnold received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry (2018) for pioneering directed enzyme evolution methods, which she has used to engineer enzymes for alternative energy, chemicals, and medicine. Arnold received the Charles Stark Draper Prize of the US National Academy of Engineering, the US National Medal of Technology and Innovation from President Obama, and the Millennium Technology Prize. She has been elected to all three US National Academies of Science, Medicine, and Engineering as well as Foreign Member of the Royal Academy of Engineering. She was appointed to the Pontifical Academy of Sciences in 2019.
Arnold is a Director of Illumina and Alphabet, chairs the Advisory Panel of the David and Lucile Packard Foundation Fellowships in Science and Engineering, and is a Trustee of the Gordon Research Conferences. She received her B.S. in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering from Princeton University and her Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley.