Gevo co-founder Professor Frances Arnold of the California Institute of Technology has been awarded the 2018 Nobel Prize for Chemistry for her work on the directed evolution of enzymes. According to Gevo, Professor Arnold and her research group developed some of the critical enzymes needed for Gevo’s biological pathway to produce renewable resource-based isobutanol.

She is reportedly the only 5th woman in history to receive the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. She shared this year’s chemistry Nobel — worth close to $1 million — with George P. Smith, 77, and Gregory P. Winter, 67. Dr. Arnold received half of the prize, and Dr. Smith and Dr. Winter split the other half.

Dr. Arnold won for her work conducting the directed evolution of enzymes, proteins that catalyze chemical reactions. Here’s an interesting article about her work in the New York Times.