Tape 2, 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 596.2
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: 18:00

Stephanie Kwolek continues her discussion on Kevlar by demonstrating how the fibers can stretch. She then begins speaking about her childhood, noting that initially she did not intend to be a chemist; she planned on working as a fashion designer. She credits her father, a "naturalist" who died when she was ten years old, for instilling in her a love of science. In college she studied medicine and chemistry, and after she began working for DuPont in the Fibers Department, she decided to pursue chemistry as her career.

The students in the audience are given the opportunity to pose questions to Stephanie Kwolek during a question and answer session. Some of the questions include: how much producing Kevlar costs; how bullet-proof vests are made; how to cut Kevlar; can Kevlar be transparent; what specifically got Kwolek into fibers; where she attended college; how stiff Kevlar can be; what the origin of the name "Kevlar" was; and how the discovery changed her life.