Wallace Carothers

Dr. Wallace Hume Carothers (1896-1937) 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. Carothers, thought to suffer from manic-depression committed suicide in 1937.

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