Photo: Airman 1st Class Keenan Berry / Public domain (source: Wikimedia Commons)
My Take
Dean Kamen is exactly the kind of inventor I admire, prolific and stubbornly practical. Over 1,000 patents is a staggering number, and his honors read like a clean sweep of American engineering, the National Medal of Technology, the Lemelson-MIT Prize, the Inventors Hall of Fame. The Segway gets the headlines, but the iBOT wheelchair and his medical devices feel more important to me. What I respect most is FIRST, the robotics nonprofit he co-founded with Woodie Flowers, because turning kids into engineers may outlast any single gadget. He strikes me as someone building the next generation, not just patents.
Overview
Dean Lawrence Kamen (; born April 5, 1951) is an American engineer, inventor, and businessman. He is known for his invention of the Segway and iBOT, as well as founding the non-profit organization FIRST with Woodie Flowers. Kamen holds over 1,000 patents.
Summary adapted from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
1. Profile
- Name (English)
- Dean Kamen
- Name (Japanese)
- ディーン・ケーメン
- Reading
- でぃーん・けーめん
- Born
- April 5, 1951 (age 75)
- Zodiac / Chinese zodiac
- Aries / Rabbit
- Origin
- Long Island, New York, United States
- Blood type
- Private
- Height
- Private
- Agency
- Private
- Occupation
- entrepreneur / inventor
2. Background
- Elementary school
- Private
- Junior high
- Private
- High school
- South Side High School
- University
- Private
Awards & achievements
- 1995 Hoover Medal
- 1997 Edwin F. Church Medal
- 1999 Heinz Award
- 2000 National Medal of Technology and Innovation
- 2002 Lemelson–MIT Prize
- 2005 National Inventors Hall of Fame
- 2007 ASME Medal
- 2008 Washington Award
3. Relationships
- Spouse
- Private
- Children
- Private
- Parents
- Private
- Siblings
- Private
4. Personality
Motto
Private
6. Links
Entrepreneur — see all → · Inventor — see all → · More people from United States →
7. About this entry
Tags
- Last updated
- 2026-06-02
Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public items are marked "Private / Unknown". English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.