John E. Kelly III is an American executive at

IBM International Business Machines Corporation (using the trademark IBM), nicknamed Big Blue, is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company headquartered in Armonk, New York, and present in over 175 countries. It is ...

. He has been described as the "father" of Watson, a computer system most known for competing against humans on ''

Jeopardy! ''Jeopardy!'' is an American television game show created by Merv Griffin. The show is a quiz competition that reverses the traditional question-and-answer format of many quiz shows. Rather than being given questions, contestants are instead g ...

'' He joined IBM in 1980 and has served as the director of

IBM Research IBM Research is the research and development division for IBM, an American Multinational corporation, multinational information technology company. IBM Research is headquartered at the Thomas J. Watson Research Center in Yorktown Heights, New York ...

. Kelly has received the Frederik Philips Award and the Robert N. Noyce Medal, both of which are presented by the

Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) is an American 501(c)(3) public charity professional organization for electrical engineering, electronics engineering, and other related disciplines. The IEEE has a corporate office ...

(IEEE). He has served as a board member for his alma maters,

Union College Union College is a Private university, private liberal arts college in Schenectady, New York, United States. Founded in 1795, it was the first institution of higher learning chartered by the New York State Board of Regents, and second in the s ...

and

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (; RPI) is a private university, private research university in Troy, New York, United States. It is the oldest technological university in the English-speaking world and the Western Hemisphere. It was establishe ...

, as well as the

New York Academy of Sciences The New York Academy of Sciences (NYAS), originally founded as the Lyceum of Natural History in January 1817, is a nonprofit professional society based in New York City, with more than 20,000 members from 100 countries. It is the fourth-oldes ...

and the

Semiconductor Industry Association The Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) is a trade association and lobbying group founded in 1977 that represents the United States semiconductor industry. It is located in Washington, D.C. About The Semiconductor Industry Association (SI ...

. Kelly was elected a member of the

National Academy of Engineering The National Academy of Engineering (NAE) is an American Nonprofit organization, nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. It is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM), along with the National Academ ...

in 2013 for contributions to the U.S. semiconductor industry through technology innovations and strategic leadership.

Early life and education

Kelly was raised in

Albany, New York Albany ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. It is located on the west bank of the Hudson River, about south of its confluence with the Mohawk River. Albany is the oldes ...

, and attended

Bishop Maginn High School Bishop Maginn High School was a Catholic high school in Albany, New York. It was a coeducational institution. The school belonged to the school system of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany. It was accredited by the New York State Board of Rege ...

. He earned his

bachelor's degree A bachelor's degree (from Medieval Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six years ...

in physics from

in 1976. Kelly received his

master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional prac ...

in physics and doctorate in materials engineering from the

in 1978 and 1980, respectively.

Career

Kelly has held various roles at

since 1980. He was named director of the company's Semiconductor Research and Development Center in 1990, then became

's vice president of systems, technology and science in 1995. Kelly served as general manager of

IBM Microelectronics IBM Microelectronics Division was the semiconductor arm of International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) from 1966 to 2015. Two facilities in Burlington, Vermont, and East Fishkill, New York, housed the majority of the division. It was sold ...

from 1999 to August 2000. In 2007, he succeeded Paul Horn as the head of IBM Research. He has also served as a senior vice president of cognitive solutions and director of IBM Research, and an executive vice president. He serves as chairman of the IBM Academy of Technology's board of governors. In 2020, Kelly represented IBM at a conference on the

ethics of artificial intelligence The ethics of artificial intelligence covers a broad range of topics within AI that are considered to have particular ethical stakes. This includes algorithmic biases, Fairness (machine learning), fairness, automated decision-making, accountabili ...

(AI) organized by the

Pontifical Academy for Life The Pontifical Academy for Life or Pontificia Accademia per la Vita is a Pontifical Academy of the Catholic Church dedicated to promoting the Church's consistent life ethic. It also does related research on bioethics and Catholic moral theology. ...

, where he signed the "Rome Call for AI Ethics", which advocated for the responsible use of AI technologies. He also announced IBM's partnership with the Bambino Gesù Hospital in

Vatican City Vatican City, officially the Vatican City State (; ), is a Landlocked country, landlocked sovereign state and city-state; it is enclaved within Rome, the capital city of Italy and Bishop of Rome, seat of the Catholic Church. It became inde ...

to use Watson to gather data about brain cancer and other diseases. In late February, Kelly was tasked with building and directing IBM's COVID-19 Task Force. On the 18th of December, 2020,

announced that Kelly will retire from the company at the end of the year.

Semiconductors

In 1997, during Kelly's tenure as vice president of IBM's chip division, the company developed a method of manufacturing computer chips with copper instead of aluminum. Kelly is a board member and former chairman of the

. He received the IEEE Robert N. Noyce Medal for outstanding contributions to the microelectronics industry, as well as the IEEE Frederik Philips Award for accomplishments in the management of

research and development Research and development (R&D or R+D), known in some countries as OKB, experiment and design, is the set of innovative activities undertaken by corporations or governments in developing new services or products. R&D constitutes the first stage ...

. In 2013, he received the

's Arthur M. Bueche Award for his work on semiconductor technology.

Intellectual property

In his role as senior vice president of technology and

intellectual property Intellectual property (IP) is a category of property that includes intangible creations of the human intellect. There are many types of intellectual property, and some countries recognize more than others. The best-known types are patents, co ...

(IP), Kelly led IBM's technical and innovation strategies, as well as the company's IP initiatives. He continued focusing on IP during his tenure at IBM Research.

Supercomputing and Watson

Kelly has worked on IBM's Summit and Sierra

supercomputer A supercomputer is a type of computer with a high level of performance as compared to a general-purpose computer. The performance of a supercomputer is commonly measured in floating-point operations per second (FLOPS) instead of million instruc ...

s, and has overseen the company's artificial intelligence and research projects. He has been credited for leading a team to advance the Watson computer system. ''

InformationWeek ''InformationWeek'' is a digital magazine which conducts corresponding face-to-face events, virtual events, and research. It is headquartered in San Francisco, California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United State ...

'' described Kelly as the "father of Watson" and credited him for encouraging the system to compete against humans on ''

'' He co-wrote ''Smart Machines: IBM's Watson and the Era of Cognitive Computing''.

Personal life and philanthropy

Kelly is married and a Catholic. He and his wife provided funding for Union College's digital arts lab, which is part of the institution's computer science and visual arts departments. The John E. Kelly III '76 Digital Arts Lab was dedicated in 2006. Kelly also helped fund the Peter Irving Wold Center, which opened in 2011 with the Kelly Advanced Computing Laboratory named in his honor. He also helped Union College acquire an IBM Intelligent Cluster, giving the school "one of the most advanced computing capabilities of any undergraduate liberal arts college in the nation". Kelly has served on the boards of trustees for each of his alma maters, Union College and the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. He has served on Union College's board since 2003, and was elected chairman in 2015. Kelly received an honorary

Doctor of Science A Doctor of Science (; most commonly abbreviated DSc or ScD) is a science doctorate awarded in a number of countries throughout the world. Africa Algeria and Morocco In Algeria, Morocco, Libya and Tunisia, all universities accredited by the s ...

degree from

Union Graduate College Union Graduate College (UGC) was an American college in Schenectady, New York from 1905 until it merged into Clarkson University in 2016. It was a part of Union College from 1905 to 2003, and was independent from 2003 to 2016. Organization Th ...

in 2004, and an honorary degree from

Dublin City University Dublin City University (abbreviated as DCU) () is a Third-level education in the Republic of Ireland, university based on the Northside, Dublin, Northside of Dublin, Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Created as the ''National Institute for Highe ...

in 2012. He has also received a Lifetime Achievement Award from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Kelly is a fellow of the

IEEE The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) is an American 501(c)(3) organization, 501(c)(3) public charity professional organization for electrical engineering, electronics engineering, and other related disciplines. The IEEE ...

, serves on the

' board of governors, and is a member of the National Academy of Engineering.

Publications

* *

References

External links

Dr. John E. Kelly, III
at the

IT History Society The IT History Society (ITHS) is an organization that supports the history and scholarship of information technology by encouraging, fostering, and facilitating archival and historical research. Formerly known as the Charles Babbage Foundation, ...

Dr. John E. Kelly III
at the

Artificial intelligence positioned to be a game-changer
(2017),

CBS News CBS News is the news division of the American television and radio broadcaster CBS. It is headquartered in New York City. CBS News television programs include ''CBS Evening News'', ''CBS Mornings'', news magazine programs ''CBS News Sunday Morn ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kelly, John E. Living people American Catholics IBM people Artificial intelligence ethicists Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute alumni Union College (New York) alumni 1964 births