Half of this year’s Nobel Prize in Chemistry went Wednesday to a Caltech scientist, who is only the fifth woman to win the prize.
She is Frances H. Arnold, a scientist and engineer at Caltech.
In announcing the award in Stockholm, Sweden, the Royal Swedish Academy said that this year’s prize “awards a revolution based on evolution” and goes to scientists who “applied the principles of Darwin in the test tube.”
Arnold was recognized for performing the first-ever “directed evolution” of enzymes, which are proteins that catalyze chemical reactions. Enzymes produced through directed evolution are used to manufacture everything from sustainable biofuels to pharmaceuticals.
“It was very exciting,” Arnold told reporters about the phone call she received at 4 a.m. notifying her that she was a winner. “The committee calls and tells you you’ve been chosen for the Nobel Prize, at which point your jaw drops to the floor and you can’t say anything else. But I was very excited.”
The other half of the prize went jointly to George P. Smith, a professor at the University of Missouri, and Sir Gregory P. Winter of the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom.
The methods developed by the laureates are reported to have been put to work to create new enzymes and antibodies used in promoting a greener chemicals industry, mitigating disease and saving lives.