Colleagues say the DuPont chemist credited with inventing the body armour component Kevlar has died in the US aged 90.
Her friend, Rita Vasta, said that Stephanie Kwolek died on Wednesday in a hospital in Wilmington, Delaware.
Vasta said she doesn't know the cause of death but that Kwolek had been ill for about a week.
DuPont said Kwolek made her discovery in the mid-1960s while working on specialty textile fibres. She invented a liquid crystalline solution that could be spun into exceptionally strong fibres. Kevlar is widely used in protective equipment by police and the military.
Vasta said Kwolek was proud of her invention and worked to get more women into science.
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