Frances Arnold: From Pittsburgh Waitress To Nobel Prize Winner

PITTSBURGH, PA - Frances Arnold went from serving drinks as an underage waitress in a Pittsburgh nightclub to Nobel Prize winner. Arnold, of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, on Wednesday became the fifth woman in the Nobel’s 117-year history to win the prize for chemistry.

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, which chose the winners, said Arnold conducted the first directed evolution of enzymes, whose uses include "more environmentally friendly manufacturing of chemical substances such as pharmaceuticals and the production of renewable fuels."

George Smith of the University of Missouri and Gregory Winter of the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, England, also were awarded Nobel Prizes for chemistry. Smith developed a new way to
evolve proteins, and Winter used the method for evolving antibodies with the aim of producing new drugs.

Arnold will take half of the $1 million prize; the two other winners will split the other half.

“Thank you everyone,” Arnold said in a tweet responding to the congratulations she is receiving. “I love this supportive community. I'm stunned.”

Arnold, 62, is the CIT Linus Pauling professor of chemical engineering, bioengineering and biochemistry and director of the Donna and Benjamin M. Rosen Bioengineering Center. She holds a bachelor’s degree in mechanical and aerospace engineering from Princeton University and a doctorate in chemical engineering from the University of California-Berkeley.

Arnold grew up in Edgewood. Rebelling against her strict Roman Catholic military family, she moved into her own apartment in high school and paid the rent by working as a waitress at Walt Harper’s Attic, the legendary Market Square jazz club. According to a profile in the Los Angeles Times, the 17-year-old Arnold got the job by telling Harper she was 22.

“Of course they never checked IDs then,” she said.

Photo via Shutterstock.

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