Year Honored: 2014

Birth: 1923 - 2014

Born in: New Kensington, Pennsylvania

Biography

Stephanie Louise Kwolek attended Margaret Morrison Carnegie College, which is now a part of Carnegie Mellon University. She studied chemistry with the intent to become a doctor, though she started working at the DuPont company in order to save money for college and stayed on when she graduated in 1946.

In 1965, Kwolek was attempting to make lightweight tire fibers to boost gas mileage in cars when she accidentally discovered Kevlar fibers. Kevlar, which is five times stronger than steel, is best known for its use in bulletproof vests, but is also used in more than 200 ways, including a super strong rope, protective gloves for meatpackers, and fiber-optic cables. More than 3,100 law enforcement officers have been inducted into the IADP, DuPont Kevlar Survivors’ Club thanks to Kwolek’s invention. She also has 16 other patents.

After retiring from DuPont in 1986, after more than 40 years with the company, Kwolek traveled to schools to speak to students, particularly women, to get them interested in the sciences. She is a member of the American Chemical Society, the American Institute of Chemists, Sigma Xi, Phi Kappa Pi, and the Franklin Institute of Philadelphia.

Kwolek was the only woman inducted into the Plastics Hall of Fame (1997); received the Perkin Medal from the Society of Chemical Industry’s American Section; inducted into the National Inventers Hall of Fame (1995); received the White House National Medal of Technology (1996); the Carnegie Mellon Alumni Distinguished Achievement Award (1998); elected a member of the National Academy of Engineering (2001); received honorary degrees from Worcester Polytechnic Institute and the Clarkson Institute; and is the only woman to have received the Lavoisier Medal for Technical Achievement from DuPont.

When she died in 2014, Fred Gilman, Dean of CMU Carnegie Mellon College of Science, remembered her as “small in physical stature, but a giant in what her discoveries did for the world.” DuPont Chairman and CEO, Ellen Kullman, said she was a “creative and determined chemist, and a true pioneer for women in science… She leaves a wonderful legacy of thousands of lives saved and countless injuries prevented by products made possible by her discovery.”
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Sources and Additional Readings

BBC. (2014, June 21). Kevlar inventor Stephanie Kwolek dies. BBC News. Retrieved January 18, 2022, from https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-27951043
lemelsonfoundation. (2009, February 28). 1999 Lemelson-MIT Lifetime
Achievement Award winner Stephanie L. Kwolek. YouTube. Retrieved January 18, 2022, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8dX3Z5CyF3c

Oral history interview with Stephanie L. Kwolek (1998). Science History Institute Digital Collections. (n.d.). Retrieved January 18, 2022, from https://digital.sciencehistory.org/works/vh53ww75r

Samorodnitsky, D. (2019, July 31). Meet Stephanie Kwolek, the woman who gave us bulletproof vests and Yoga Pants. Massive Science. Retrieved January 18, 2022, from https://massivesci.com/articles/stephanie-kwolek-spandex-kevlar-dupont-science-hero/

Stephanie L. Kwolek. Science History Institute. (2021, May 26). Retrieved January 18, 2022, from https://www.sciencehistory.org/historical-profile/stephanie-l-kwolek

Stephanie Louise Kwolek (1923-2014) - find a... Find a Grave. (n.d.). Retrieved January 18, 2022, from https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/131603223/stephanie-louise-kwolek

Stephanie Louise Kwolek Obituary (1923 - 2014) the Enterprise. Legacy.com. (n.d.). Retrieved January 18, 2022, from https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/southofboston-enterprise/name/stephanie-kwolek-obituary?pid=171425332