Dean Kamen
While most of us know Dean Kamen as the inventor of the Segway, there is a deeper story burning to be told. In fact, Kamen’s pedigree as an inventor and a scientific mind stretch way beyond the Segway. He was born in 1951 with a passion for technology and invention that simply could not be stopped. Dean’s inventions and innovations have made indelible marks on whole industries and, most importantly, the day-to-day lives of their consumers.
As an inventor, Dean holds over 440 patents from the United States Patent and Trademark Office and various foreign governments. A great deal of them protect Kamen’s breakthroughs in medical technology, some of which have pushed worldwide healthcare beyond boundaries that seemed uncrossable just a few short decades ago. Kamen’s medical innovation began while he was still an undergrad in college: when he invented the first wearable infusion pump. The pump gained acceptance rapidly from all ends of the medical spectrum, including professionals in chemotherapy, endocrinology, and neonatology. By 1976, the demand for Kamen’s pumps grew so large that he founded his first medical device company (AutoSyringe, Inc.) to manufacture and market them to the public. By 30, Dean sold the company for hefty sum to Baxter International Corporation.
However, Kamen was far from done. By the time of the AutoSyringe sale he was already involved in the creation of other infusion devices, including the first ever insulin pumping device for those with diabetes. This pump made the previously painstaking task of insulin intake immeasurably easier and more convenient for anyone afflicted with this terrible disease. A few years later, Kamen founded DEKA Research & Development Corporation to develop his own creations as well as provide custom research and development services for major corporations. Some of the biggest products from the biggest companies actually had their genesis in Dean’s research labs!
In 1989, Dean founded another organization: FIRST, or For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology. This was Dean’s entry into science and technology evangelism, an outlet for his high-spirited quest to spread the wonders of technology around the world and change the lives of those who use it. Using traditional media and marketing techniques that have long been employed by successful businesses, FIRST motivates the new generation of youngsters and businesspeople to increase their understanding of science and technology. Dean himself has personally recruited dozens of top names in industry, education and government – people who would be instantly recognized by the public – to assist with this mission. The results have been nothing short of outstanding. The national championship of FIRST’s robotics competition, for example, teams professional engineers with ambitious high school students across the nation. In its first year, the competition set a new record for the largest non-Disney event ever to be held at Epcot Center in Walt Disney World. The 2000 event attracted almost 400 teams of engineers and students and has tangibly impacted thousand of students before them. One of Kamen’s proudest achievements with FIRST is that many of these students have been women or minorities who were not previously involved with technology on a wide scale.
Dean has also done a great deal to get children involved with science and technology. On the heels of FIRST’s robotic competition and its success, FIRST introduced the FIRST LEGO League in 1999. The purpose of the FIRST/LEGO alliance was to expand FIRST’s reach to younger crowds and expose them to the field. The fruits of this partnership have benefited some 25,000 youngsters by giving them hands-on experience with various tools and the ability to invent their own robotic LEGO creations. By any measure, the FIRST LEGO League has been a runaway success at bringing kids into the fold.
Between FIRST and Dean’s business ventures, his inventions have earned some of the highest marks any inventor could hope to achieve. His HomeChoice Dialysis machine (developed for Baxter) won Design News’ 1993 Medical Product of the Year. The Crown Stent was developed and marketed by conglomerate Johnson & Johnson. Another Kamen invention, the IBOT personal transporter for the elderly, was released in 1999. To the astonishment of the medical technology community, Kamen’s device could climb stairs, cross sandy and rocky surfaces, and raise the person using it to eye-level with someone fully standing up. Up until the IBOT, these had been considered some of the most thorny, intractable problems disabled and elderly people faced. In one fell swoop, Kamen all but eliminated them.
Dean’s mastery of science and technology have not gone unnoticed by the press, either. The Smithsonian Magazine recently named him “the Peid Piper of Technology”, while the New York Times dubbed him “A New Kind of Hero for American Youth.” Clearly, Dean Kamen is a force to be reckoned with in the sphere of technology and a success story eminently worthy of study.