Stephen P. Kelty was born in Canton Ohio and earned his B.S. degree in Chemistry at the University of Cincinnati.  He joined AT&T Bell Laboratories in Holmdel and Murray Hill New Jersey as a Senior Technical Associate working in chemical and physical reliability of electronic components.  He then joined the Bell Communications Research laboratory in Red Bank New Jersey working in surface functionalization and modification of electronic devices before he began his doctorate research at Columbia and Harvard.  He worked in the research group of Charles Lieber focusing on the electronic surface properties of intercalated graphite and on superconducting buckminsterfullerene. Upon earning his doctorate, he was a postdoctoral fellow at the Exxon Corporate Research Laboratory in Annandale New Jersey.  There he worked in the laboratory of Dr. Russell Chianelli (now at the University of Texas, El Paso) and focused on the electronic properties of hydrodesulfurization catalysts using scanning tunneling microscopy and atomic force microscopy.  In 1995, Dr. Kelty accepted a position at Seton Hall University, Department of Chemistry where he is currently a professor of Chemistry and departmental chair.  In 2001, he received a grant from the New Jersey Commission on Science and Technology to initiate a research-grade computational center at Seton Hall of which he is the director.

     In 2002-2003, Dr. Kelty was visiting research faculty at Trinity College, Dublin where he used classical molecular dynamics to investigate interfacial phenomena of mixed metal oxides.  He worked in the research group of Prof. Graeme Watson. He was the Chemistry departmental chair at Seton Hall in 2009-2014 and was reëlected to that post in 2018 in which capacity he currently serves.

      Dr. Kelty's long-standing interests focus on the structure-function relationships of active surface and bulk materials primarily using computational methods.  His current interests include investigation of the photo-physical properties of modified phthalocyanines and interfacial properties of hafnia and other high dielectric metal oxides.  

     The Kelty research group has been supported by the NSF, NJ Commission on Science and Technology, DOE (energy), Research Corporation, the Air Force Research Laboratories (US AFRL) and the DOE (education).  His students have been supported on many of these grants as well as by the New Jersey Space Grant Consortium (NASA) and the Independent College Fund of NJ.

     Dr, Kelty teaches at the undergraduate and graduate level courses in general chemistry, physical chemistry, quantum mechanics, statistical mechanics and chemical kinetics.