Dr. Patrick Kelly is the Executive Director of the CONNECT Research Ireland Centre for Future Networks, comprising 12 higher education institutions in Ireland and headquartered at Trinity College Dublin. CONNECT is Ireland’s 6G Research Centre with a wide research agenda spanning AI for 6G and Open RAN networks, cybersecurity, quantum networks, sustainability and smart cities.
Patrick graduated from Trinity College Dublin (B.A. (Mod.) in experimental physics, 1986, Ph.D. in Physics, 1992). He joined NMRC (now Tyndall National Institute), University College Cork, as a Research Scientist in 1991, and became Group Director – Photonics in 1999. Founder and Chief Technology Officer of Optical Metrology Innovations Ltd until its trade sale in 2007. Commercialization Executive at the University of Galway, Ignite Technology Transfer Office, from 2007. Appointed Deputy Director of Adelaide Research & Innovation Pty Ltd, Australia, in 2011.
He returned to Ireland in 2014 as Research, Development, and Innovation Director at ROBUS Lighting (LED Group), where he introduced Driver-On-Board technology and led the development of Human Centric Lighting, along with related tunable lighting and smart wireless/IoT controls. He is a named inventor on seven patents and the author of some 60 academic and conference papers.