Stephanie Kwolek

Stephanie Kwolek never married, she dedicated her entire life to her profession.

She lived a long and fruitful life and died on June 18, 2014, at the age of 90.

Stephanie Kwolek was born on July 31, 1923, in New Kensington, Pennsylvania, United States, to Polish immigrant parents. Her father, John Kwolek, was a naturalist by avocation who took his daughter on numerous trips exploring the natural world. Her mother Nellie was a fashion-conscious woman.

Her father died when she was just 10 years old. But the love for science she inherited from him would remain with her for life.

She earned a Bachelor of Science degree with a major in chemistry from Margaret Morrison Carnegie College of Carnegie Mellon University in 1946. Her initial plan was to become a doctor. She hoped to find a chemistry-related job and earn enough money to attend medical school.

Shortly after her graduation, Hale Charch offered her a position at DuPont's Buffalo, New York, facility. In the 1940s, a huge number of men were overseas because of the World War II and employers were more open towards recruiting women.

Stephanie Kwolek began her career at DuPont in 1946. Initially she planned on working there only temporarily as she had plans to attend medical school. But with time she found the job very interesting and ditched her plans of becoming a doctor, choosing to continue with her current career path.

In the 1960s, Kwolek was made part of a team at DuPont’s research laboratory in Wilmington that was trying to develop a lightweight yet strong fiber to be used in tires. This work involved manipulating strings of carbon-based molecules to produce larger molecules known as polymers, and she was specifically working with poly-p-phenylene terephthalate and polybenzamide.

She was struggling with the polymers she was working with and was not able to find the results she was expecting. Conventional polymer solutions are usually clear or translucent but the one she created looked like a dispersion. However, further tests on the solution produced amazing results. The fibers spun from these polymers displayed unusual stiffness.

The fibers were tested in 1965 and were found to be five times as strong as steel of equal weight and resistant to fire. Her supervisor at DuPont recognized the commercial potential of the newly developed fiber and it was introduced in the market as Kevlar in early 1970s. Kwolek, however, was not very involved in developing practical applications of Kevlar.

Stephanie Louise Kwolek is best known for her work which led to the development of Kevlar, a para-aramid synthetic fiber, a highly versatile material that is used in more than 200 applications. The material which is even stronger than steel is used for the manufacture of bullet-proof vests, car tires, fire fighter boots, hockey sticks, bicycle tires and racing sails.