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Dr. Arnold is quick turning into a celeb. In November she’ll be a part of boldfaced sorts akin to Lin-Manuel Miranda and Jeff Bezos for a Portraits of America ceremony on the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery.

In her workplace, she has crates overflowing with awards and “literally a thousand invitations” to provide talks around the globe.

Caltech, the place Dr. Arnold has labored for practically her whole profession, has 38 Nobel laureates to its credit score, however she is the primary lady amongst them.

“I don’t mind being a celebrity,” she stated, as a result of “I photograph better than I look in reality,” which is a lie.

Her mates say she is an excellent cook dinner. In the acre of backyard surrounding her elegantly comfy 1948 California ranch home close to Pasadena, she grows sufficient meals not just for herself however for the native meals banks, too: tangerines, oranges, blueberries, lemons, kumquats, artichokes, kale, cucumbers, tomatoes, herbs and spices.

Yes, a charmed life, besides — horrible issues have occurred to her.

Her first marriage, to biochemical engineer Jay Bailey, fell aside within the early 1990s, and he died of colon most cancers in 2001. In 2004, Dr. Arnold was identified with breast most cancers that had unfold to her lymph nodes, and he or she underwent 18 months of grueling surgical procedure, radiation and chemotherapy, all whereas elevating three younger boys and dealing 60-hour weeks.

“I used to have a photographic memory,” she stated. “Chemo knocked that out.”

In 2010, Dr. Arnold’s common-law husband, the cosmologist Andrew Lange, dedicated suicide, abandoning a crater of emotional devastation so deep that Dr. Arnold nonetheless struggles to forgive him.