<YONHAP PHOTO-1747> FILE - Stephanie Kwolek poses for a photo holding with a spool of Kevlar, in this June 20 2007 file photo taken in Brandywine Hundred, Del. Her friend, Rita Vasta, told The Associated Press that Stephanie Kwolek died Wednesday June 18, 2014 in a Wilmington hospital. She was 90. (AP Photo/The News Journal, Jennifer Corbett)/2014-06-20 20:42:38/ <저작권자 ⓒ 1980-2014 ㈜연합뉴스. 무단 전재 재배포 금지.> Stephanie Kwolek. AP-Yonhap
FILE - Stephanie Kwolek poses for a photo holding with a spool of Kevlar, in this June 20 2007 file photo taken in Brandywine Hundred, Del. Her friend, Rita Vasta, told The Associated Press that Stephanie Kwolek died Wednesday June 18, 2014 in a Wilmington hospital. She was 90. (AP Photo/The News Journal, Jennifer Corbett)/2014-06-20 20:42:38/ <저작권자 ⓒ 1980-2014 ㈜연합뉴스. 무단 전재 재배포 금지.> Stephanie Kwolek. AP-Yonhap

WILMINGTON, Delaware (AP) ― Colleagues say the DuPont chemist credited with inventing the body armor component Kevlar has died at age 90.

Her friend, Rita Vasta, said that Stephanie Kwolek died Wednesday in a Wilmington hospital. Vasta says she doesn’t know the cause of death but that Kwolek had been ill for about a week.

DuPont says Kwolek made her discovery in the mid-1960s while working on specialty textile fibers. She invented a liquid crystalline solution that could be spun into exceptionally strong fibers. Kevlar is widely used in protective equipment by police and the military.

Vasta says Kwolek was proud of her invention and worked to get more women into science.

A Catholic funeral Mass is planned June 28.


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