Inventor Gordon Teng (鄧鴻吉) was named one of the world’s most outstanding inventors at an international invention show in Osijek, Croatia, on Saturday.
Teng, who has been dubbed “Taiwan’s Thomas Edison,” was granted the title and a golden trophy by the World Invention Intellectual Property Associations.
Also receiving the honor were two other inventors — one from the US and the other from Romania — with the winners selected from a pool of candidates from 22 countries.
“This award is for Taiwanese,” Teng said after receiving the trophy. “It recognizes the results Taiwan has created in invention and innovation.”
In 1999, Teng was the first Asian winner of the Genius Prize at the Nuremberg World Invention Exhibition, taking the honor for his remote control pager device. The 50-year-old also won gold medals at the Nuremberg International Invention Show five years in a row.
“Invention is a road of loneliness,” Teng said in Osijek, while expressing his gratitude to the team that has been supporting him and his work silently for many years.
“It is not only I who has the spirit of a fool,” he said wryly.
He also gave thanks to Taiwan for laying a solid framework for the development of basic industries, allowing invention and creativity to flourish in various fields.
Now heading a creative invention center at the Greater Taichung-based Chaoyang University of Technology, Teng has urged the nation to transform its “Made in Taiwan” brand into “Designed in Taiwan.”
He said that his biggest wish is for Taiwan to become a global haven for invention and creativity.
Over past three decades, Teng has created more than 300 patented inventions, including an automatic toilet-flushing system and a lock operated by fingerprint recognition.
This is the first year that the association has bestowed the title of world’s most outstanding inventors.
The award, which is to be given out every three years, honors those who through their inventions have contributed to the improvement of human life and invention education, according to the World Invention Intellectual Property Associations, a non-profit organization.
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