The Resume

(February 9, 1964- )
Born in Washington, District of Columbia
With Emmanuelle Charpentier developed CRISPR-mediated genome editing
Co-founded five biotech firms
With Charpentier won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry (2020)

Why she might be annoying:

In college, she considered changing her major to French. (Her French teacher convinced her to stick with science.)
During a 'kind of early midlife crisis,' she took a leave of absence from UC Berkeley and joined the biotech firm Genentech, where she lasted two months before deciding she missed the scientific freedom of academia.
She and Charpentier got into an involved patent dispute over CRISPR with Fang Zheng of MIT.

Why she might not be annoying:

Gene editing with CRISPR is more efficient and less complicated than earlier techniques.
CRISPR has been used in researching treatments for sickle cell anemia, cystic fibrosis, Huntington's disease, and AIDS.
Fellow Nobel Prize winner Tom Cech said, 'She's very imaginative and can see possibilities that others don't. She has an uncanny knack for picking the best experiments to answer a question.'

Credit: C. Fishel

Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

• 20th Century Scientists
• 21st Century Scientists
• C. Fishel's Profiles [Series 79]
• I Attended Harvard
• I Became a Mom in 2003
• I Earned a Doctorate
• I Gave a TED Talk
• Look at Me, I Got My Arms Folded
• My Middle Name is Ann/Anne
• Nobel Prize for Chemistry (Ranked: 2020)
• Profiles 47501-47750 (Ranked: 47574)
• Scientists
• Time Magazine's 100 Most Influential People of 2015 [April 2015]

Year In Review:

For 2024, as of last weekly ranking, Out of 2 Votes: 0% Annoying
In 2023, Out of 2 Votes: 0% Annoying
In 2022, Out of 2 Votes: 0% Annoying
In 2021, Out of 4 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
In 2020, Out of 9 Votes: 11.11% Annoying