Jennifer A. Doudna grew up on the Big Island of Hawaii, where she became interested in chemistry and biochemistry during her high school years. She is currently Professor of Molecular and Cell Biology and Professor of Chemistry at the University of California, Berkeley and an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. She received her B.A. in biochemistry from Pomona College and her Ph.D. from Harvard University, working in the laboratory of Jack Szostak, with whom she also did postdoctoral research. She next went to the University of Colorado as a Lucille P. Markey scholar and postdoctoral fellow with Thomas Cech. Doudna has also been a Donaghue Young Investigator, a Searle scholar, and a Beckman Young Investigator, and she is a former fellow of the David and Lucile Packard Foundation. She has received numerous awards for her research on RNA and RNA-protein structure and function, including the Johnson Foundation Prize for innovative research, the National Academy of Sciences Award for initiatives in research, the Alan T. Waterman Award from the National Science Foundation, and the Eli Lilly Award in Biological Chemistry from the American Chemical Society. She is a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the David and Lucile Packard Foundation and a Trustee of Pomona College. Doudna is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She is also a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.