Dean Kamen

Dean Lawrence Kamen was born on April 5, 1951, on Long Island, New York, to Jack Kamen and Evelyn Kamen (born Rothenberg). The Kamen family is Jewish. His father was an illustrator for Mad, Weird Science, and other EC Comics publications. During his teenage years, Kamen was already being paid for his ideas; local bands and museums paid him to build light and sound systems. His annual earnings reached $60,000 before his high school graduation.

He attended Worcester Polytechnic Institute, but dropped out in 1976 before graduating, after five years of private advanced research for the insulin pump AutoSyringe.

Inventions

Kamen is known best for inventing the product that eventually became known as the Segway PT, an electric, self-balancing human transporter with a computer-controlled gyroscopic stabilization and control system. The device is balanced on two parallel wheels and is controlled by moving body weight. The machine's development was the object of much speculation and hype after segments of a book quoting Steve Jobs and other notable information technology visionaries espousing its society-revolutionizing potential were leaked in December 2001.

Kamen was already a successful inventor: his company Auto Syringe manufactures and markets the first drug infusion pump. His company DEKA also holds patents for the technology used in portable dialysis machines, an insulin pump (based on the drug infusion pump technology), and an all-terrain electric wheelchair known as the iBOT, using many of the same gyroscopic balancing technologies that later made their way into the Segway.

Kamen has worked extensively on a project involving Stirling engine designs, attempting to create two machines: one that would generate power, and the Slingshot that would serve as a water purification system. He hopes the project will help improve living standards in developing countries. Kamen has a patent on his water purifier, and other patents pending. In 2014, the film SlingShot was released, detailing Kamen's quest to use his vapor compression distiller to fix the world's water crisis.

Kamen is also the co-inventor of a compressed air device that would launch a human into the air in order to quickly launch SWAT teams or other emergency workers to the roofs of tall, inaccessible buildings.

In 2009, Kamen stated that his company DEKA was now working on solar powered inventions. Later, Kamen and DEKA developed the DEKA Arm System or "Luke", a prosthetic arm replacement that offers its user much more fine motor control than traditional prosthetic limbs. It was approved for use by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in May 2014, and DEKA is looking for partners to mass-produce the prosthesis.

In 2007, his residence was a hexagonal, shed style mansion he dubbed Westwind, located in Bedford, New Hampshire, just outside Manchester. Kamen owns and pilots an Embraer Phenom 300 light jet aircraft and three Enstrom helicopters, including a 280FX, a 480, and a 480B. He regularly commutes to work via his helicopters and had a hangar built into his house. In 2016 he flew as a passenger in a B-2 Spirit bomber at Whiteman AFB, marking the opening of the 2016 FRC World Championship in St. Louis.

He is the main subject of Code Name Ginger: the Story Behind Segway and Dean Kamen's Quest to Invent a New World, a nonfiction narrative book by journalist Steve Kemper published by Harvard Business School Press in 2003 (released in paperback as Reinventing the Wheel). Kamen is a member of the USA Science and Engineering Festival's Advisory Board and is also a member of the Xconomists, an ad hoc team of editorial advisors for the tech news and media company, Xconomy. He is also on the Board of Trustees of the X Prize Foundation. Dean of Invention, a TV show on Planet Green, premiered on October 22, 2010. It starred Kamen and correspondent Joanne Colan, in which they investigate new technologies. In the 2016 United States Senate election in New Hampshire, Kamen endorsed Kelly Ayotte, appearing in an ad supporting her.

Relationship with Jeffrey Epstein

Kamen appeared in photographs from the estate of Jeffrey Epstein that were released to the public in December 2025, where he was shown with Epstein and Richard Branson on what appears to be a beach. Kamen stated that the pictures were probably from Branson's Necker Island, and claimed to have no connection with Epstein. His name had earlier appeared in the 2003 flight logs of Epstein's private jet. Further documents released in January 2026 included references to Kamen visiting Epstein's island and records of multiple phone calls and meetings between the two men. Kamen employed Nadia Marcinko as a flight trainer at DEKA.

In January 2026, Kamen voluntarily took a leave of absence from FIRST following the Department of Justice's release of files detailing past communications with Jeffrey Epstein. Although an independent review by an outside law firm found no evidence of legal misconduct, Kamen voluntarily resigned from the FIRST board of directors and withdrew from all organization activities in March 2026 to avoid creating further distractions. Following his departure, FIRST officially renamed the "Dean's List Award" to the "FIRST Leadership Award" ahead of the 2026 championship events.