Shunpei Yamazaki
Total U.S. patents: 1,811
Age: 65
Field: L.C.D.'s memory chips
Location: Tokyo
Backstory: His grades in high school were mediocre, so he could only get into a lesser-known university in Japan. While there, he met his mentor, Yogoro Kato, and spent summer vacations working under him with a handful of other students. "He taught us the spirit behind invention—like the training of the heart, how to live."
First Filed Patent: A solar cell, when he was 22. He does not recall celebrating it.
Claim to Fame: Invented what is now a fundamental element of flash memory, used in iPods, cell phones, and countless other products.
What's Next: "I endeavor to do what was done for me and educate young people. I'm trying to do more supervision than invention."

Kia Silverbrook
Total U.S. Patents: 1,646  
Age: 49
Field: Printers, high-tech paper
Location: Sydney
First Job: "Shoveling horse manure for a nursery. I didn’t like it very much."
Backstory: Ran Canon’s R&D lab in Australia. Started Silverbrook Research in 1994 as a lab that sells its technology to companies.
Why Printers? "Printers aren’t sexy, and that’s the key. When there’s a sexy technology, you wind up with lots of startups competing against each other," says Silverbrook, adding that most of them fail.
First Filed U.S. Patent: Full-color desktop-publishing system, 1990.
What's Next: A printer inside a cell phone. “It’s a few years off. The market for it doesn’t really exist yet.
 
Donald Weder
Total U.S. Patents: 1,350
Age: 60
Joseph Straeter
Total U.S. Patents: 485
Age: 46
Field: Decorative packaging
Location: Highland, Illinois
Backstory: As a boy, Weder helped at his father's company, Highland Supply, after school and on weekends. Straeter, who trained as a petroleum engineer, joined Weder's R&D department in the late 1980s.
First U.S. Patent: WEDER: "It may have been a flowerpot cover in the early 1980s—a joint effort by my father, myself and one other gentleman."
Legacy: STRAETER: "I invented things that will probably be on my casket when I'm dead."
What's Next: Straeter refitted a 2001 Dodge pickup to run on pure vegetable oil. He has no plans to patent it.