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Scientific Biographies

Science is a human pursuit. Meet some of the people who have contributed to the history of chemistry, chemical engineering, and the life sciences.
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Stephanie L. Kwolek

In a polymer research lab at DuPont, Kwolek discovered the super fiber known as Kevlar.

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Stephanie Kwolek at a polarizing microscope.
DuPont; gift of Stephanie Kwolek

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Katherin Blodgett at General Electric Research Laboratories, 1938.
Katharine Burr Blodgett
1898 - 1979
St. Elmo Brady in a chemistry lab at Fisk University. He is pouring a liquid from one beaker into another. There are counters of lab equipment surrounding him.
St. Elmo Brady
1884 - 1966
Portrait of Helia Bravo-Hollis, 2001.
Helia Bravo-Hollis
1901 - 2001
black and white portrait of a woman
Mary Letitia Caldwell
1890 - 1972
black and white photo of George Washington Carver
George Washington Carver
ca. 1864 - 1943
illustration from Grounds of Natural Philosophy book
Margaret Lucas Cavendish
1623 - 1673
Professional portrait of E. M. A. Chandler, ca. 1930. He looks over his left shoulder and is wearing a suit.
Edward Chandler
1887 - 1973
Mildred Cohn
1913 - 2009
Gerty and Carl Cori working in a lab
Gerty Theresa Cori
1896 - 1957
Marie Sklodowska Curie
1867 - 1934
An image of Marie Maynard Daly, a black woman scientist in a lab coat works with test tubes in a laboratory.
Marie Maynard Daly
1921 - 2003
Charles Drew is seated at a counter wearing a lab coat and touching a microscope
Charles Richard Drew
1904 - 1950
Hitchings and Elion in a lab wearing lab coats and smiling. They both hold black, blue, red, and white plastic models
Gertrude Elion
1918 - 1999
Rosalind Franklin
1920 - 1958
Alice Hamilton
1869 - 1970
Anna Jane Harrison
1912 - 1998
Henry Aaron Hill
1915 - 1979
Dr. Percy Lavon in a suit and tie, wearing glasses, stands in front of vertical striped wallpaper.
Percy Lavon Julian
1899 - 1975
Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw
Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw
b. 1953
woman with glasses seated at a table reading a book
Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin
1900 - 1979
b/w photo of a women seated in a dress
Mary Engle Pennington
1872 - 1952
portrait of Ellen Richards in a cap and gown
Ellen H. Swallow Richards
1842 - 1911
Portrait of Jokichi Takamine
Jokichi Takamine
1854 - 1922
black and white portrait of a man wearing a bowtie
Thomas Washington Talley
1868 - 1952
Rosalyn Yalow
1921 - 2011

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