Stephanie Kwolek was born July 31, 1923, to Polish emigrate parents John and Nellie Kwolek. She had a brother that was two years younger than her and they grew up in their home town of New Kensington, Pennsylvania. Kwolek loved to spend time exploring the outdoors with her father and she would routinely bring home plant, tree, and bug specimens for identification. When Kwolek was ten her father, a foundry worker, passed away. After her father passed away her mother went to work on a kitchenware assembly line. Kwolek was raised as a Roman Catholic and between fourth and eighth grade she attended St. Mary’s Catholic School. Growing up she originally thought she wanted to be a fashion designer until her mother told her she couldn’t survive on that. Eventually she decided she wanted to be a medical doctor and took classes that would be prerequisites for a medical degree. (Selle, 2004 ).
Kwolek graduated from Carnegie Mellon University in 1946 at the age of twenty three. She earned a Bachelor of Science Degree in chemistry. Due to a lack of funds, Kwolek went to work to earn money with the hope of returning to school. After graduation Kwolek got a job working in DuPont’s textile chemistry laboratories. She enjoyed the challenge of her work so much that she decided to forgo medical school. In 1950, Kwolek moved to Wilmington, Delaware, with DuPont’s Pioneering Research Laboratory. Throughout her career Kwolek continued to take graduate level classes when she felt she needed them. Starting in 1950 Kwolek began working with a type of polymer that was very stiff and strong and could be made into flame-resistant fibers. These polymers were called aramids because they were made up of aromatic rings. Due to the aramids high melting temperature they had to be dissolved into a solution. Kwolek was able to find the solvent and create the right conditions in order to produce poly-m-phenylene isophthalamide which was named Nomex. Nomex is a flame-resistant fiber and was released from DuPont in 1961. Kwolek was able to use what she had learned with aramids and move into work with poly-p-benzamide and poly-p-phenylene terephthalamide which present a rod-like molecular chain. (Encyclopedia Britannica).
From the poly-p-benzamide and poly-p-phenylene terephthalamide polymers, Kwolek was able create a solution that was cloudy and watery. She tried to filter the solution but never could remove the cloudiness of the liquid. Finally, she asked the spinning technician to spin the crystal solution but he refused, afraid that it would ruin the machine. Eventually Kwolek was able to convince the technician to spin the solution in the spinneret and the result was a strong, flame-resistant, and extremely stiff fiber. The fiber became even more strong, stiff and tough when treated with heat. After ten years of development DuPont began selling this ultra-strong fiber commercially under the name of Kevlar. Kwolek retired from DuPont in 1986 and went out and bought a new sewing machine for her retirement. (Selle, 2004).
Stephanie Kwolek has received numerous awards for her research. She was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 1994 and is one of four women represented. She received the National Medal of Technology in 1996. In 1997 Kwolek received the Perkin Medal that was presented to her by the American Section of the Society of Chemical Industry. (Chemical Heritage Foundation).
