DuPont polymer chemist helped develop the fiber, and demand is soaring.

by John Reid Blackwell

"That is the chemical formula for Kevlar," said Gabara, a bespectacled chemist whose heavy accent and thoughtful, precise language make him seem all the more scientific when he discusses polymer chemistry.

The chemistry behind the bullet-resistant Kevlar and other man-made fibers has consumed decades of work for Gabara, who was born in Poland during World War II and left his homeland in 1968 to find a better life in the United States. That move landed him in Waynesboro, doing research at a DuPont company plant.

He has stuck with the Wilmington, Del.-based company for 36 years, a career in which he has worked at the intersection of chemistry and business, doing research and helping develop applications and markets for such DuPont products as Kevlar and Nomex, a heat-resistant material in firefighter suits. His work has taken him around the world as the company pursued new markets and customers.

The safety aspects of Kevlar were known before its commercial introduction in the 1970s, Gabara said, but the company's plans for the product were different when he came to the Richmond area in 1976 to improve the manufacturing process and increase production at DuPont's Spruance plant.

"When Kevlar was introduced, the vision was that it would be a tire yarn, mostly," he said. "Ninety-five percent of [production] would be used in tires, and 5 percent would go to other uses. In reality, today the reverse is true."

Kevlar has become synonymous with bullet-resistant vests. The high-strength, lightweight material is credited with saving thousands of police officers and soldiers from serious injury or death, but Kevlar also goes into tires, ropes, gloves and protective sheathing for electronics.

DuPont does not disclose sales figures for Kevlar, but it has increased production in recent years -- including a $50 million local expansion in 2002 -- to meet what the company has called "soaring demand."

Gabara has conducted or helped design research programs that have produced lighter and stronger materials that are easier to use and more cost-effective. Kevlar, for example, is twice as light as it was 20 years ago, making it more effective for personal protection. "A policeman is not protected by a vest that is stored in a closet; they have to wear it," he said.

Though he started out as a researcher struggling with a new country and a new language, Gabara is a DuPont Fellow, the highest title for the company's scientists. This year, he received another honor, DuPont's Lavoisier Medal, which the company awards to scientists for technical achievements. It is named for Antoine Laurent Lavoisier, an 18th-century French chemist who is often called the father of modern chemistry.

Roger Siemionko, global technology director for DuPont's Advanced Fibers System and its safety and protection platform, said Gabara "has clearly been one of the pioneers" in developing Kevlar for commercial use.

"Over the years, he has expanded his reach, and now he is basically the technology godfather in residence for . . . Nomex and Kevlar." He said Gabara is also known for mentoring young researchers when they join the company.

Gabara is reluctant to talk about personal achievements, saying credit belongs to many scientists and engineers who made the incremental improvements in design and production. "Very few things are done by one person alone," he said.

Chemistry has been Gabara's passion since he was in high school. Born in Soviet-controlled Bialystok, Poland, in 1940, he was an infant when his family fled east to escape the invading German army in 1941. He has only faint memories of living on a collective farm near the Volga River, where "one of my duties was to help feed the pigs." His father, a cabinetmaker, and his mother, a historian, later moved the family to Moscow before returning to Poland after the war.

Gabara went to high school in Krakow, where his interest in chemistry blossomed. He received his doctorate in polymer chemistry at the Polytechnic Institute of Technology in Warsaw. He planned to teach, but political circumstances changed that.

In 1968, an anti-Semitic faction took power within the communist government and began expelling most of Poland's remaining Jews. So Gabara and his wife, Uliana, immigrated to the United States. Gabara had no job, and they had been allowed to exchange only $5 when they left Poland.

Fortunately, Uliana had been to school in the U.S., so for a while the couple lived with friends in New York. But they wanted to make a smaller city their home. "We thought if we stayed in New York, we would always remain immigrants," he said.

Academic jobs were hard to find, so Gabara applied for research jobs with several companies, including DuPont. That was how he came to Waynesboro, where he began work as a researcher in the company's Orlon acrylic-fiber plant.

It was tough at first because his English wasn't good. "I didn't know the vocabulary I needed," he said. "I assume I must have done well, because I got several promotions."

Gabara said he also fell in love with the culture of the U.S., "because of the importance that is assigned here to the individual." Also, when he arrived in America, he was moved by "the sense that people could affect things that were happening around them, in their community," an idea that he says has declined somewhat since his arrival.

Gabara became a U.S. citizen in 1974. He and Uliana -- who is dean of international education at the University of Richmond -- are "fully converted to American ways," he said, though he still loves traveling to such exotic locales as the Galapagos Islands and Kenya.

Gabara's main role today is "to formulate technological options for the business," though he is still involved in some research work on materials, aimed at solving such problems as flame protection and energy absorption. "We are looking at compositions which will do these things at a lower weight, a higher level of protection and at lower cost," he said.

In an award, DuPont also recognized Gabara as being instrumental in bringing a potentially revolutionary new product into the company's portfolio: the fiber known as M5. M5 is yet another high-strength, manmade material that could have numerous applications in ballistics protection and other products. Gabara helped DuPont partner with Magellan Systems International, a company that makes M5 and has a research site in Richmond, to develop applications. This year, DuPont increased its ownership stake in the company.

M5 is not a replacement for Kevlar or Nomex, Gabara said, but it could be used in combination with those materials to make improved protective gear. "The next phase for us will be to demonstrate to the market the value of this product," he said.

Gabara's work still takes him all over the world. Most recently, he has spent time in China, where the company is looking to build its market. He sees big opportunities in China for Nomex, particularly for heat protection in industrial processes. "As industrialization there continues, I believe the opportunity for materials like this which can provide environmental protection will grow," he said.

The company also offers Kevlar and Nomex for firefighter protection. "Firemen cannot be dressed in cotton," he said. "With a 1.3 billion population [in China], we think there will be social needs which we can meet to the benefit of both us and them."  

(Reprinted with permission from the Richmond Times-Dispatch.)

-- Aug. 23, 2005