Thomas F. Kelly is a pioneer in the field of atomic-scale research. He was a professor of Materials Science and Engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison for 18 years prior to founding Imago Scientific Instruments (later acquired by CAMECA) to commercialize his invention, the local electrode atom probe (LEAP). Currently, Dr Kelly is Founder and CEO of Steam Instruments, Inc., is a Fellow of the Microscopy Society of America, the International Field Emission Society, the Microanalysis Society, and the Korean Society for Microscopy. He was recently elected to the US National Academy of Engineering.