There's plenty of ordinary Nobel laureates.
I am a student of evolution and adaptation.
I can't imagine not being able to read and write, or make these connections from literature and philosophy that have helped inform my understanding of evolution.
I did all sorts of things that you wouldn't normally find on an engineer's docket, but it made an educated person out of me.
I wanted to develop a career where I could use my engineering background to have a positive effect on society.
I've done that my whole life - I've taken the way people think and turned it on its head.
I was very head-strong, and this was the Vietnam War era - You did not listen to your parents or other authority figures. You didn't share their values. No one did in my circle. It was OK to rebel.
I had to grow up, reach a certain age where I see people do have something to show me.
I do something to make things nature never made but which is useful to humans.
I care about this beautiful planet that we all share. This is a home that we have to leave in good shape for the next generations.
Nature's made much more dangerous things than I ever will.
Pittsburgh was a wonderful place to grow up - diverse and complex, one could go from one culture to a completely different one in just a few blocks. It was a whole world in one city.
I learned how to navigate the world, and life's potholes, in Pittsburgh.
I thought to myself: What are the most important problems that society faces that I could contribute to? And it was clear that finding new sustainable sources of energy was the most important.
I meet so many young people who want to plan out their lives and want a recipe. They want me to tell them how to succeed. I didn't follow a recipe. I followed my instincts.
I was lucky to be passionate about a field that was full of opportunity.
Most innovative things are not obvious to other people at the time. You have to believe in yourself. If you've got a good idea, follow it even though others tell you it's not.
Doing science at the highest level is hard for anyone. It's hard for women, and it's hard for the men. And we need to have supportive mentors and role models we can look up to.
For me, I was always the only woman in my cohort, first as a mechanical engineering undergraduate student, then as a chemical engineering graduate student. There were very few women getting degrees in those fields at the time. My role models were men - great men role models.
My feeling is that we can genetically encode almost any kind of chemistry. We just have to learn how to do that.
