I’ve always had a fondness for Dean Kamen and his engineering company, Deka. His stair-climbing wheelchair is inspiring. He was a long-time customer of my father’s business (AutoCAD distributor). He lives in my home town. And he’s a benefactor of the world’s largest Lego minifig-scale installation (https://www.see-sciencecenter.org/visitors/millyard-project.aspx) which is very near the Deka offices.
This article includes a flattering bio of him as a person, and goes into depth about one of his most interesting projects.
I recently watched “Top Secret” with Val Kilmer again – this quote comes to mind:
Doctor Flamond: You see, a year ago, I was close to perfecting the first magnetic desalinization process so revolutionary, it was capable of removing the salt from over 500 million gallons of seawater a day. Do you realize what that could mean to the starving nations of the earth?
Nick Rivers: Wow. They’d have enough salt to last forever.