Frances Arnold

We are going to see a steady stream, I predict, of Nobel prizes coming out of chemistry and given to women.

I was the first female cab driver in the city of Pittsburgh.

I tried lots of things and never stopped learning.

I can't imagine not being able to read and write, or make these connections from literature and philosophy that have helped inform my understanding of evolution.

The DNA-encoded catalytic machinery of the cell can rapidly learn to promote new chemical reactions when we provide new reagents and the appropriate incentive in the form of artificial selection.

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.

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.

For some reason, there are political forces that somehow feel threatened by honest inquiry. How can you be threatened by wanting to know the facts?

I was used to being the only woman in everything... I didn't even think about it. Men were my role models - there's nothing wrong with that.

I don't sit around feeling sorry for myself. There's always somebody who's a lot worse off than you.

I've been called pushy and aggressive and all the negative words that are rarely applied to men with the same traits. But it doesn't bother me.

All my projects are about sustainability, bioremediation, making things in a cleaner fashion.