Local professor honored as Woman of the Year by state caucus

A La Cañada Flintridge professor was recently named a Women of the Year by the California Legislative Women’s Caucus for her contributions to California.

Frances Arnold was nominated by Assemblyman Mike Gatto (D-Silver Lake) for her accomplishments in science, medicine and engineering, according to Gatto.

Arnold was one of 10 women honored at the “Breaking the Glass Ceiling” awards ceremony in the state Assembly chambers.

Arnold, a professor at the California Institute of Technology, is the only woman to receive the Charles Stark Draper Prize – the highest honor in the engineering profession, and the the only woman to be elected to all three U.S. national academies of science, medicine and engineering.

Gatto said he was pleased that Arnold was honored.

“I owe so much to the strong women in my life, like my mother, who fought her way through night law school while raising three kids. It is so important that we recognize these woman leaders,” Gatto said in a statement. “Dr. Arnold is an inspiration to us all.”

-- Daniel Siegal, Times Community News

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