What’s New: Applied Materials is pleased to welcome Frances H. Arnold to the company’s Growth Technical Advisory Board (GTAB). Dr. Arnold is a pioneering scientist and the first American woman to win the Nobel Prize in Chemistry (2018) for her groundbreaking work in directed enzyme evolution. As a member of the GTAB, she will help connect Applied to different innovation ecosystems and expand opportunities for employees to collaborate with new scientific efforts.

Why It Matters: Applied formed the GTAB in 2020 to bring in unique perspectives on how major industries will evolve as technology becomes increasingly pervasive in the decade ahead. The group is composed of leading academic and industry luminaries with a diverse set of backgrounds in fields including science, technology, government and education. The GTAB is chaired by Applied Senior Vice President and CTO Om Nalamasu and co-chaired by former Massachusetts Institute of Technology President Rafael Reif.

About Frances H. Arnold: Dr. Arnold is the Linus Pauling Professor of Chemical Engineering, Bioengineering and Biochemistry at the California Institute of Technology. She pioneered directed enzyme evolution and has used directed evolution to optimize biocatalysts for applications in alternative energy, chemicals and medicine. Her methods are used throughout the world to engineer enzymes and other proteins. Arnold’s current efforts focus on expanding DNA-encoded chemistry by discovery and optimization of new-to-nature enzyme activities and developing methods for machine-learning-guided enzyme evolution and discovery.