Ardem Patapoutian is a molecular biologist and physiologist. His laboratory identified the molecules that sense temperature and pressure involved in touch, pain, and regulating blood pressure. Patapoutian was born in Lebanon in 1967 and immigrated to the USA in 1986. He graduated from UCLA in 1990 with a B.S. and received his Ph.D. from Caltech in 1996. He joined the faculty of Scripps Research in 2000, where he is currently the Presidential Endowed Chair in Neurobiology and an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences (2017) and a member of American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2020). He is a co-recipient of the 2020 Kavli Prize in Neuroscience, the 2021 BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award, and the 2021 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (all shared with David Julius).