Ocupation: Chemist
Life: July 31, 1923 - June 18, 2014
Birthday: July 31
Death: June 18
I was working with these very long-chain ... extended-chain polymers, where you had a lot of benzene rings in them. ... Transforming a polymer solution from a liquid to a fiber requires a process called spinning. ... We spun it and it spun beautifully. It [Kevlar] was very strong and very stiff-unlike anything we had made before. I knew that I had made a discovery. I didn't shout "Eureka!" but I was very excited, as was the whole laboratory excited, and management was excited, because we were looking for something new. Something different. And this was it.
Topics: Strong, Science, Discovery, Kevlar, Benzene
[At DuPont,] I was very fortunate that I worked under men who were very much interested in making discoveries and inventions. They were very much interested in what they were doing, and they left me alone. And I was able to experiment on my own, and I found this very stimulating. It appealed to the creative person in me.
Topics: Science, Men, Discovery, Discovery And Invention
I tell young people to reach for the stars. And I can't think of a greater high than you could possibly get than by inventing something.
Topics: Stars, Science, Thinking
All sorts of things can happen when you’re open to new ideas and playing around with things.
Topics: Ideas, Playing Around, Happens
