UAE inventor picked as 'person of the month'

An Emirati inventor, nicknamed “Edison of the UAE” after the famous late US inventor Thomas Edison, was selected as “person of the month”by Emarat Alyoum Arabic language daily, which introduced the award at the start of 2012.

An entrant into Guinness book of records, Ahmed Majan was picked for the March award for achieving record inventions that exceed 1,000 patents, the paper said.

“Majan is an example to be followed by Emirati inventors who have great ambitions….we have selected him from a list of candidates for his great achievements,” Emirat Alyoum editor in chief Sami al Riyami said.

The 50-year-old Majan, a resident of Dubai, began his career in 1985 when he graduated as an aviation engineer from Greece. He then pursued his studies in Germany in the military science field. Besides Arabic, Majan speaks five languages and has been awarded numerous local and international prizes and certificates.

He has been registered in Guinness as the inventor of the world’s largest bike and most of his inventions have been funded through local firms he had set up to market his products, including development of solutions faced by individuals or institutions.

“My father played a very important role in my life,” he said. “In the past,I was suffering lack of funding to complete the innovation and development, but His Highness Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai, supported me morally and financially, and encouraged me to continue and succeed.”

Majan disclosed he would soon launch what he described as an innovative method to resolve problems faced by fishermen and allow them to largely increase their catch.

Another invention involves what he terms as “the beach of fiction” which is designed for environmentally friendly vehicles drawn by electronic horses, as well as a “drowning-resistant” swimming pool involving automatic increase or decrease in water depth.

The Dubai-based Emarat Alyoum, one of the region’s most popular Arabic language newspapers, launched that award to honour outstanding people for their role in the society, the first prize of its kind in the country.

An affiliate of the Dubai Media Incorporated, one of the largest information establishments in the region, Emarat Alyoum said its editing board would pick the person at the end of each month.

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