3D Printing Inventor 'Amazed' At Healthcare Applications

When Charles "Chuck" Hull created the first 3D printer in 1983, he had no idea next-generation devices would one day print prostheses.

When Charles "Chuck" Hull created the first 3D printer in 1983, he never envisioned a time when these devices would generate hearts, ears, or blood.

"I had a faint inkling that it had more power than I initially thought," Hull told InformationWeek. "It's expanded beyond what I could possibly have predicted."

Since receiving a patent for what he first dubbed "sterolithography" in 1986, 3D printing has become an industry in its own right: Organizations create everything from prostheses to guns via a wide array of printers and "inks." Because of his vision and long-ranging impact, in May Hull was nominated for the European Inventor Award, along with fellow Americans Cary Queen and Harold Selick, who invented humanized monoclonal antibodies for drugs, and Japanese inventors Mashahiro Hara, Takayuki Nagaya, Motoaki Watabe, and Tadao Nojiri, who developed the QR code. The ceremony will occur on June 17 in Berlin.