Madame Kevlar: The scientist who redefined officer safety

摘要

A daughter of working-class Polish immigrants goes on to discover what Fortune magazine dubs "The miracle in search of a market." Dr. Stephanie Kwolek passed away Friday, June 20th at the age of 90. But her legacy is far from silenced. In the 1950s and '60s Kwolek labored for years in DuPont's laboratory, eventually discovering the unique chemical recipe that came to be known as Kevlar. The material was a boon to many, but perhaps none more so than the men and women law enforcement officers who don the ballistic vest to go to work every day. Since the 1970s when it was first used in public safety body armor, about ten years after Kwolek's initial discovery, about 3,000 officers have been saved from bullet wounds through the use of equipment reinforced with Kevlar, a material far stronger than steel.