Do you know who invented Kevlar?
By Don Valentine and Adan Hernandez
Did you know that one of the most useful fibers in the world was created by a female? This remarkable woman is a Polish American chemist named Stephanie Louise Kwolek. She was working for an American chemical company named DuPont when she discovered this material.
Police Lt. David Spicer took four 45-caliber slugs to the chest and arms at point-blank range and lived to tell about it. Like thousands of other police officers and soldiers shot in the line of duty, he owes his life to Stephanie Kwolek.
A pioneer as a woman in a mostly male field, she made the breakthrough while working on specialty fibers at a DuPont laboratory. DuPont was looking for strong, lightweight material that could replace steel in auto-mobile tires, and improve fuel economy.
“I knew that I had made a discovery,” Ms. Kwolek said in an interview several years ago that was included in the Chemical Heritage Foundation’s “Women in Chemistry” series. “I didn’t shout ‘Eureka,’ but I was very excited, as was the whole laboratory, and management was excited because we were looking for something new, something different, and this was it.”
In a statement, DuPont CEO and Chairwoman Ellen Kullman described Kwolek, who retired in 1986, as “a creative and determined chemist and a true pioneer for women in science.” Ms. Kwolek is the only female employee of DuPont to be awarded the company’s “La-voisier Medal” for outstanding technical achievement. She was recognized as a “persistent experimentalist and role model.”” She leaves a wonderful legacy of thousands of lives saved and countless injuries prevented by products made possible by her discovery,” Ms. Kullman said.
Kevlar is used in our every-day life and we don’t even know it. It is used in bike tires, bow-strings, and tennis rackets. It has saved lives, brought joy, produced happiness, and all of that is possible because of Stephanie Kwolek.
