Born in New Plymouth, New Zealand, Kelly went to Francis Douglas Memorial College in his High-school years, graduating he then went on to study at the Victoria University of Wellington for a BSc and MSc.
[citation needed] After finishing his PhD in 1974, he worked for seven years on the electronic structure of metals and semiconductors as a post-doc researcher.
Kelly joined the GEC Hirst Research Centre in 1981, working on the development of microwave devices.
[8] In 2010, Kelly was named by the Royal Society and the University of East Anglia to an independent scientific assessment panel to investigate the Climatic Research Unit email controversy.
[9] The panel concluded that there was "no evidence of any deliberate scientific malpractice in any of the work of the Climatic Research Unit.