International African Inventors Museum IAI Museum Homeemail iaimuseum.org
Featured Inventors
Mark E. Dean
Patricia Bath
Carlton L. Gyles
Issa Odidi
Joseph E. Dadson
Juliet M. Daniel
Warren Salmon
Jude Igwemezie
Charles Drew
William Peyton Hubbard
Elijah McCoy
Dr. Mark E. Dean
Mark E. Dean was born on March 2, 1957 in Jefferson City, Tennessee. Dean knew from a child that technology would play a major role in his life and wanted to work for IBM. In elementary school, he excelled in math in the grades 1 to 4, and was taking the same math courses as the older children. Building his first computer, radio and amplifier during high school, Dr. Dean went on to obtain his bachelor's degree from the University of Tennessee, his Masters at Florida Atlantic University, and his Ph.D. from Stanford University. Dr. Dean has been working for IBM since 1980 and was named an IBM Fellow. He holds more than 20 US patents including three of IBM's original nine PC patents.

Dr. Dean's PC patents include those geared toward allowing people to add new devices to their personal computers - simplifying the way printers, scanners or graphics are added, or devising a technology friendly to vendors who build plug-ins. Many of his patents are in the area of new features such as a set of graphics so that elements - pictures on the screen - are cleaner.

Dr. Mark E. Dean is one of the scientists responsible for creating the computer technology currently being used in more than 40 million personal computers produced each year. In 1998, a team led by Dr. Dean produced the 1 GHz chip (which would be something like a Pentium 1,000 but faster), which contains 1 million transistors and will eventually be applied to microprocessors. The 1 GHz chip's potential is limitless.