1951: Born in Rockville Center, New York


1976: Completes AutoSyringe, a portable insulin pump, a project he had begun before entering college

1982: After selling AutoSyringe company, founds DEKA Research in Manchester


1989: Launches FIRST robotics program to popularize science and technology in schools

1993: DEKA's HomeChoice portable kidney dialysis machine named Medical Product of the Year by Design News magazine

1999: Develops IBOT, a wheelchair which uses gyroscopes to maintain balance and can climb stairs and curbs

2000: Awarded National Medal of Technology by President Bill Clinton; awarded honorary doctorage from Worcester Polytechnic Institute, which had asked Kamen to leave after five years of study for not making enough progress on his degree

2001: Makes worldwide headlines with launch of Segway Human Transporter, a.k.a. "Ginger"

2004-present: Developing Slingshot project, aimed at designing a low-cost, low-energy water filtering device for use in developing nations that lack access to clean water.

2005: Inducted into National Inventors Hall of Fame


2007: Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) awards $18.1 million contract to DEKA to design and develop an advanced prosthetic arm and hand

What are the most significant ways that New Hampshire has changed over the past 25 years? “I think it’s changed in a lot of good ways. Some of it’s growth, it’s made more resources available and accessible. My little company now has a few hundred technology people, and we can do a lot more than we could before. But I think also, just as when people age, certain things that they used to get for free start requiring effort. And I think even 25 years ago, when New Hampshire was ‘younger’ when I moved here, there were less issues that now we have to deal with, including, believe it or not, traffic in Manchester. I think we have a great new airport that serves a lot more places, it’s more capable, but also, when I first got here, you just pulled up, you got out of your car and you walked on an airplane. Those days are gone, so I think New Hampshire will start to face all the issues that established, large cities face. It has to start dealing with all of its infrastructure, some of which is now starting to get old and needs repair. Everybody loves building brand new things, not that many people are excited about having to rebuild or maintain old things, so New Hampshire is growing and some of that’s good, but some of that’s going to require more attention.”

Where do you think New Hampshire should put its energies in the next 25 years? “I hope it doesn’t give up some of the things that lured us here. It probably sounds really corny, but that license plate that says ‘Live Free or Die’ – I don’t think we want to give up the idea that freedom, of all kinds, really does matter to people. And it’s in some subtle ways the reason that creativity and innovation flourish in a place like this. The idea that people are free to do things including make mistakes, they’re free to try wacky ideas, they’re free to do things that in a very rigid culture, one that exists in many places around the world, you don’t see innovation. And in the next 25 years, more than ever, being innovative and being creative is going to matter to New Hampshire and to this country.”