Dean Kamen Success Story

Dean Kamen is an inventor, an entrepreneur and an advocate for science and technology. As an inventor, Dean holds more than 150 U.S. and foreign patents, many of them for innovative medical devices that have expanded the frontiers of health care worldwide.

Childhood

Dean Kamen was born in 1951, in Long Island, New York. His father, Jack, was an illustrator for Weird Science and Mad comic books and his mother, Evelyn, was a teacher. Kamen was more interested in inventions and did not do well in the school. By the time Kamen was a teenager, he was being paid for his inventions, most of which he built in his parents' basement. He was earning about $60,000 a year before graduating from high school.

Career

Dean Kamen Kamen attended Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) in Massachusetts but dropped out without graduating. In 1976, he founded his own company, AutoSyringe. In 1982 Kamen sold AutoSyringe to Baxter International, an international health-care company. Kamen founded DEKA Research & Development Corporation in 1982 and in1989, founded FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology), a program for students to get people interested in science, technology, and engineering.