[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 153 (Thursday, September 25, 2008)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1961]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  TRIBUTE TO DR. MICHAEL ALLISON KELLY

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. ANNA G. ESHOO

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                     Wednesday, September 24, 2008

  Ms. ESHOO. Madam Speaker, I rise today to pay tribute to an 
outstanding researcher, business leader, professor, husband, father, 
grandfather, sailor, winemaker and prolific inventor, Michael A. Kelly, 
who is retiring after decades of outstanding work at Stanford 
University in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering.
   Mike was born to James and Irene Kelly on December 14, 1936, in 
Roswell, New Mexico, (pop. 35,000--largest city for 200 miles) with 
wide open spaces and lots of sky. The Navy gave him an ROTC scholarship 
to UCLA when he was 18 years old and because he was such an outstanding 
student, he graduated in 1959 with a B.S. in engineering.
   The Navy sent Mike to the Brooklyn Navy Yard for 3 years where large 
ships equivalent to aircraft carriers were built. He loved New York 
City where military service people were treated with great respect and 
given free tickets to Broadway plays and concerts. Mike attended 
Brooklyn Polytechnic during this time and received his MSEE in 1963.
   After the Navy, Mike returned to California where he was accepted 
into one of the most competitive graduate programs in the nation, 
University of California at Berkeley's Physics Department. Mike studied 
photonuclear physics experiments on oriented nuclei under Professor 
Carl Helmholtz, finishing a PhD in nuclear physics in 1968.
   Hewlett Packard wisely tapped Mike after he graduated to run a group 
developing analytical instruments running HP's R&D and marketing 
efforts for the early XPS spectrometer which was introduced in 1972. HP 
sold Mike the parts needed to build an XPS. Three colleagues and Mike 
developed a business plan to form a company called Surface Science 
Laboratories based in Mountain View, California, using this 
spectrometer to help local manufacturers solve production problems. 
Unable to secure venture capital, they each contributed $5,000, and 
Mike departed HP and became the company's first employee, with his 
partners helping evenings and weekends. They managed to survive without 
any additional funding and they were all employed by the company within 
a year. They added a division to manufacture XPS instruments and grew 
to about 100 employees. They decided to merge with a publicly traded 
instrument company (Kevex Corporation, with approximately 300 
employees) in 1982, and Mike became the Chief Operating Officer and 
later President of the combined company.
   In 1984, after Kevex Corporation was purchased by a British firm, 
Mike began his work at Stanford University under the leadership of Stig 
Hagstrom, then the outstanding Chairman of the Materials Science 
Department at Stanford. Mike planned to stay about a year, but the 
environment was so pleasant and invigorating that he stayed as a 
Consulting Professor, teaching courses in materials synthesis and 
characterization. Stig accepted a position in Sweden as the Chancellor 
of the Universities a few years later, and Mike continued to run his 
research group doing work on CVD diamond growth for five years. In 1991 
Mike borrowed an XPS spectrometer from his old company, (Stanford later 
bought it) forming the basis of what is now the surface analysis lab in 
SNL. A recent collaboration with the brilliant and wonderful Professor 
ZX Shen developing a microwave microscope has been a particularly 
valuable experience for Mike.
   Mike has been awarded many professional honors including the IR(100) 
Award for an imaging, photon counting detector; IR(500) Award for a 
high spatial resolution XPS spectrometer; the Glenn T. Seaborg 
Laboratory Special Award for a soft x-ray window; and the Takeda 
Foundation Techno-Entrepreneurship Award. Mike is a member of the 
American Physical Society, a Fellow of the American Vacuum Society, and 
member of the Materials Research Society. He is published and holds 
many patents.
   Lastly, Mike enjoys the honor of being part of the Kelly Clan which 
includes his wife Carol; his children Jim, Paul, Maureen, and Brian, 
their spouses and partners Charlie, Lisa, and Jack; Carol's children 
Karen and Eric, and Eric's wife Sarah; his brothers and sister Tom, 
Dick, and Barbara, and their spouses and partners Jan, Melanie and 
Milt; his nephews and nieces Mike (and his wife Darlene), Sean, Kathy 
(and her husband Mike), Patty, Tommy, Kelly, Mike, Gretchen, and Matt; 
and his adored grandchildren Izzy, Annie, Lucy, Ryan, Jack, and Katie.
   Madam Speaker, I ask my colleagues to join me in honoring the work 
of Dr. Michael A. Kelly as he begins the next exciting chapter of his 
life. Mike has given exemplary service to advance the research goal of 
better understanding of materials and energy sciences that form the 
foundation for developing new, clean energy with less impact on our 
environment, an endeavor that benefits our entire nation. He is a 
conscientious and gifted mentor of the next generation of talented 
young scientists, and a true example of being a scholar and a 
gentleman. It is a privilege to know and represent Mike Kelly and an 
honor to single out his extraordinary achievements and contributions.

                          ____________________