Good to see Dan Gelbart's brilliance being recognised with the award of the Reed Technology Medal. In fact, I hereby nominate him for the Ipex 2010 Champions in Print hall of fame too.

Dan is one of those rare beasts - a very special brain-the-size-of-a-planet person who, despite operating on some sort of higher mental plane, is also able to communicate and engage with mere mortals of average brain power. I vividly remember being privileged to meet him years back, when he demonstrated the potential of switchable polymers in printing plates using assorted props including a cigarette lighter. Apparently he has an engineering workshop in his basement at home that includes some sort of micro-lathe. He makes stuff for fun that has precision beyond that of a Swiss watch. What a guy.

There's an entertaining story about Dan and the early days of Creo on this blog, and an appreciation of his technical wizardry and foresight can be had by perusing his list of patents. His most recent patent filing involves something unfeasibly clever to do with controlling continuous inkjet droplets. Given the amount of activity and many patents already registered in this space from industry giants such as HP, to my mind this perfectly illustrates that Dan Gelbart really is a special sort of genius with a unique vision, and we in the printing industry are privileged to be benefiting from it.