Dean Kamen
DEKA Research
Manchester, NH USA
"It takes as much passion to succeed at something unimportant as something important."
Career Roadmap
Dean's work combines: Science, Technology, and Helping People
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Day In The Life
Skills &
Education
Here's the path I took:
High School
Bachelor's Degree
Worcester Polytechnic Institute
Life & Career Milestones
My path in life has been direct
1.
Says he was a poor student in college; took multiple choice tests and thought, there can't only be four answers to these problems.
2.
He and his brother-a pediatric cancer researcher-developed a pump that could administer small amounts of medicine to children.
3.
A doctor at Yale realized that the pump could be used to administer insulin to diabetics-started developing these pumps for different uses.
4.
Built most of the outpatient dialysis equipment used today.
5.
Tried to develop a way to purify water to the U.S. Pharmacopeia's standard for injection; failed, spent millions, but developed a powerful purifier.
6.
Says that the greatest advantage that roadtrippers have over the successful people they've visited is time.
7.
Before each project, he estimates how much time it would take to develop; if the tradeoff between success and time sunk isn't worth it, he doesn't do it.
8.
Says in the end, it probably won't matter which of the right paths you take; there are many and they're all important in different ways.