recently, i was wondering who came up with the idea of

the neoprene wetsuit? some believe that it was Jacques Cousteau,

but that is not the case (he worked with a somewhat similar material

that never did catch on, while neoprene went on to become the

industry standard).

early design of Bradner suit, 1953

     the inventor of the neoprene wetsuit was Hugh Bradner, working

out of UC Berkely.  Basically, he was the first person to use neoprene

for a protection suit, sometime around 1952. 

dr hugh bradner in los alamos (1943-1946)

     Bradner is an interesting guy... he actually worked on the Manhattan

Project, and helped plan the new laboratory at Los Alamos early on

(see a brief bio). he's been married 61 years; he met his wife

while working at Los Alamos. as far as i can tell, he is still alive.

     neoprene itself was invented by Wallace H. Carothers in 1931. he

worked for the DuPont chemical company, which put the invention into production.