Dean Kamen American entrepreneur and inventor.
- The remainder of this article needs thorough fact-checking - it coincides with what I remember reading but I haven't gone and checked it properly
However, Mr. Kamen was already a successful and wealthy inventor, after inventing a new type of blood pumping and filtering system for medical applications (check), as well as an all-terrain electric wheelchair using many of the same gyroscopic balancing technologies that later made their way into the Segway.
In April 2002, Kamen was awarded the Lemelson-MIT Prize for inventors for his invention of the Segway and of an infusion pump for diabetics.