Wallace Carothers

Dr. Wallace Hume Carothers (April 27, 1896 - April 29, 1937) was the leader of organic chemistry at DuPont. He was born in Burlington, Iowa.

Dr. Carothers began his academic career as a faculty member of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1924. He moved to Harvard University in 1926, and then came to DuPont to work on polymers in 1928. In April 1930, Carothers' team discovered neoprene, a synthetic rubber, and synthesized the first polyester superpolymer, the precursor to nylon. In 1929, he became the first industrial chemist to be elected to the National Academy of Sciences. Carothers, thought to suffer from manic-depression, committed suicide in 1937 by drinking a potassium cyanide solution.

Dr. Carothers was an avid reader of poetry and lover of classical music.

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