instead of aluminum. Kelly is a board member and former chairman of the Semiconductor Industry Association. 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. In 2013, he received the National Academy of Engineering'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 (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 supercomputers, 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 described Kelly as the "father of Watson" and credited him for encouraging the system to compete against humans on Jeopardy! 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 degree from Union Graduate College in 2004, and an honorary degree from Dublin City University in 2012. He has also received a Lifetime Achievement Award from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Kelly is a fellow of the IEEE, serves on the New York Academy of Sciences' board of governors, and is a member of the National Academy of Engineering. Publications See also List of Dublin City University people List of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute people List of Union College alumni References External links Dr. John