In this week’s Wednesday’s Women in STEM Series, we are highlighting Stephanie Kwolek, the woman who invented Kevlar. If you aren’t familiar with Kevlar, its a polymer fiber that is used most commonly to make lightweight body armor for police and military personnel. Read on to learn more about how Stephanie Kwolek invented this amazing material that has saved thousands of lives.
“To invent, I draw upon my knowledge, intuition, creativity, experience, common sense, perseverance, flexibility, and hard work.”
After graduating from the women’s college of Carnegie Mellon with a degree in chemistry, Kwolek took a research position at DuPont in 1946 to earn money to attend medical school, her childhood dream. However, once she started working in the lab, she discovered her true passion was in scientific research. She worked with polymers, large molecules made up of many repeating units (plastics and rubber are two examples), trying to develop a lightweight yet strong polymer that could be made into a fiber. At first, the polyamide solution she discovered didn’t behave the way Kwolek or her (mostly male) colleagues assumed it would and many thought it should be thrown out. Typical polymer solutions are clear and thick like honey but her polymer solution was cloudy and and much thinner. She didn’t give up and insisted DuPont continue to test this cloudy polymer solution. What she found was amazing — these fibers, when lined up in parallel, had unbelievably high strength and stiffness. This was the birth of Kevlar in 1965, a lightweight material that not even steel bullets could pass through.
“I discovered over the years that I seem to see things that other people did not see. If things don’t work out I don’t just throw them out, I struggle over them, to try and see if there’s something there.”
Since then, Kevlar has been used for over 200 different applications including bullet proof vests, boats, airplanes, sporting equipment, ropes, and building materials. Stephanie Kwolek entered the field of chemistry and DuPont at a time when few women worked there. Her creativity and curiosity helped her imagine the seemingly impossible and she persisted and pushed her ideas when others said it wouldn’t work.
“Not in a million years did I think the discovery of this liquid solution would save thousands of lives.”
If you’d like to share Stephanie Kwolek’s story with your daughter, check out the children’s book by Edwin Brit Wyckoff, “The Woman Who Invented the Thread That Stops the Bullets: The Genius of Stephanie Kwolek”
