Tape 4, Stephanie Kwolek Innovative Lives Presentation
name: label: Collection Creator
content: Kwolek, Stephanie
label: Collection Creator
content: Jerome and Dorothy Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation.
setName: label: See more items in
content: Stephanie Kwolek Innovative Lives Presentation
label: See more items in
content: Stephanie Kwolek Innovative Lives Presentation / Series 3: Reference Videos (VHS)
unitdate: label: Date
content: 1996 March 25
container: label: Container
content: Box 3, Video RV 596.4
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Archives Center, National Museum of American History
objectType: label: Type
content: Archival materials
label: Type
content: Moving Images
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents
content: Total Running Time: 29:00

The interview with Stephanie Kwolek continues as she discusses her interests and influences during her childhood and her experience at Margaret Morris Carnegie College, now Carnegie Mellon University. She explains that while women were not permitted to enroll in the engineering college at the time, there were a number of women who studied chemistry and other sciences. Kwolek also discusses her experiences during the invention and development of Kevlar. While working at DuPont she looked for new ways to make polymers with higher temperature stability, and in 1964 she was asked to look for the next generation of a high performance fiber. She explains the process of applying technical methods to test and create polymers. Kwolek describes how she and the other team members collaborated to produce Kevlar. She talks briefly about her experience as a woman working in a technical, male-dominated field, and she encourages women to continue to work in the fields of science.