Work, avocation take Charleroi native to new heights

By Ron Paglia
FOR THE TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Sunday, January 13, 2008


Philip J. Kellman, Ph.D., didn't set out to be a college professor, Fulbright Scholar, NASA researcher, author and pilot. But those credits are among the ever-growing list of accomplishments on his curriculum vitae.

"I went to college certain that I would become an attorney," said Kellman, a native of Speers now living in Pacific Palisades, Calif.  "From some courses in philosophy and psychology, I got very interested in issues of human nature, consciousness and how knowledge is possible."

That desire to learn more about cognitive psychology ignited during Kellman's undergraduate studies at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., continues today in his duties as chair of the Cognitive Area in the Department of Psychology at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).

Cognitive psychology, Kellman explained, attempts to study the aforementioned issues using scientific methods.

"As with most of scientific psychology, my work focuses on how minds and brains work in general and has little to do with clinical psychology, personality or pathology," said Kellman, 53, a 1972 graduate of Charleroi Area High School.

Kellman graduated magna cum laude with a bachelor's degree from Georgetown in 1976. He earned his master's and doctor of philosophy degrees in psychology from the University of Pennsylvania in 1977 and 1980, respectively.

It was during graduate school at Penn that Kellman focused on research on "how we see," especially visual perception of three-dimensional objects, how seeing relates to thinking, how perception develops in infancy, and perceptual learning throughout life.

"These areas fascinate me for a number of reasons," he said. "They involve deep issues of the relations of the world, the mind and the brain. They also have many direct practical implications. Another benefit is that they involve a fair amount of mathematics that I enjoy. I think I'm a geometer at heart."

Kellman's passion for education moved him to the front of the classroom not long after receiving his doctorate as he accepted a position as assistant professor of psychology at Swarthmore College, near Philadelphia, in 1980. He then became an associate professor and professor at Swarthmore, where he taught through the 1992-93 term.

It was during his tenure at Swarthmore in 1984 that he received support from the U.S. National Science Foundation and the James McKeen Cattell Foundation to be a visiting scholar at the Uppsala Universitet in Sweden.

"I was fortunate to work with some excellent scientists there doing research on object and motion perception," Kellman said.

Four years later, in 1988, he was a Fulbright Scholar at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia. His assignment there involved research on depth and space perception.

Kellman was appointed as a senior associate by the U.S. National Research Council to work for a year (1991-92) at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Ames Research Center in Mountain View, Calif. He worked in the Aviation Human Factors Division and began to test his ideas for applying perceptual learning methods to computer-based learning.

"It was our first time living in California and we enjoyed it," Kellman said of his family. "And the experiments -- on improving pilots' pickup of information from instruments and charts -- worked great."

In an "unexpected bonus," Kellman was able to base his aircraft at Moffett Naval Air Station at NASA Ames.

"Lined up for takeoff behind a P-3 Orion or a gigantic C-5A transport, my plane looked like a small insect," he said, laughing. "That kept me on my toes. It was the closest I'll ever come to being a military pilot, or being run over by one."

While at NASA, Kellman was recruited by UCLA, but he and his wife, the former Pamela Hilpert, M.D., were hesitant about a permanent move to the West Coast.

"California was heading into recession at the time so we kept putting it off," he recalled. "But UCLA became more persuasive, so we decided to accept their offer. Although I was very happy in my job at Swarthmore, a great place, it had no doctoral program. Having graduate students really helps in doing scientific research, so I was open to moving to a place with an excellent Ph.D. program."

Kellman, who also worked as an adjunct professor of psychology at the University of Pennsylvania from 1988-93, has been on the fast track since joining the UCLA faculty in 1993. In addition to his current position, he has served as director of the Psychology Department Honors Program, the Human Perception Laboratory and the Cognitive Science Research Program. In 2004 he was honored by the University of California with Professor Step VI designation, a special rank conferred in the UC system "upon evidence of great distinction, recognized nationally and internationally, in scholarly and creative achievement."

He also has received numerous other honors and awards throughout his career.

The genesis of Kellman's respect for and love of learning "on all levels of life" lies in his Mon Valley roots and education at Charleroi Area High School.

He is one of three children born to the late Bernard and Gloria Kellman, longtime residents of Speers.

His late father grew up in Belle Vernon and California, Pa., fought in the Pacific Theater of Operations in World War II and owned and operated Kellman Glass Service in Pricedale and later in Charleroi. His mother was a homemaker and, Kellman emphasized, "a loving mother and wife."

"My father taught by example: dedication, responsibility, high standards," Kellman said poignantly in reference to role models in his life. "He went to war at 20, was deeply affected by that experience, and approached most of life with that same sense of duty. My parents stressed education without seeming to harp on it, and they worked hard to provide us with opportunities in life."

To that end, Kellman recalled, his father worked "with remarkable persistence in a pretty thankless job" for many years.

"He didn't complain about it, but he told me time and again to get an education and warned me not to make a living working with my hands," Kellman said. "To document the soundness of his advice, he had me work at Kellman Glass Service during the summer beginning at age 13. I look at my academic career as a result of my failed efforts to become a master glazier."

Kellman's brother, Scott Kellman, is a graduate of the University of Michigan and its law school. He is the chief executive officer of CARE Investment Trust and is recognized for his expertise in health care real estate. He and his wife and their four children live in Ann Arbor, Mich. Their sister, Rochelle Kellman, who earned a journalism degree from Northwestern University, has worked as a freelance writer and property manager and lives in Montague, Mass.

Complementing the values instilled by his parents, Kellman said, were his experiences in school.

"I can't say I had a running start when I got to college, because about half of the students had gone to prep schools," he said. "So it took some time to get up to speed. But CAHS had some very dedicated teachers who knew and taught their subjects well."

Kellman also remembers the "tremendous support" at Charleroi Area High School for extracurricular activities. In addition to varsity golf, he completed interscholastically in speech and debate, edited the Cougar Courier student newspaper, participated in musical productions and was involved in other activities.

"I learned as much doing those things as I did in the classroom," he said. "You can go to many parts of the country and find that support for extracurricular programs has been cut way back. We were fortunate. And keep in mind that teachers were putting in a lot of time to support these activities."

Such activities presented "unusual opportunities for growth," Kellman said. He cited his work with the Cougar Carrier as a prime example.

"We would drive to Bentleyville to work on layouts for each issue with the man (Guy Paul) who owned the newspaper (Bentleyville Courier) and offset printing business there," Kellman said.

Also firmly planted in Kellman's memory bank are the "astonishing" concerts and musicals produced by teacher Elizabeth Kramer.

"In ninth grade she told me I could sing and was sending me to County Chorus," he smiled. "Later she suggested I do a solo in a concert. I was terrified and would never have done this if Mrs. Kramer had not simply told me I was going to do it. We did 'My Fair Lady,' 'Finian's Rainbow' and 'Fiddler on the Roof.'"

Speech and debate, with Ruth Schrag as his coach, also made a lasting impression on Kellman.

"I've really come to appreciate the school's support for these activities in a way that didn't occur to me at the time," he said.

Kellman won the Pennsylvania state championship for extemporaneous speaking in his senior year and was runner-up each of the two years before that. He also won district and state events that provided a ticket to national speech tournaments three years running.

Kellman said he looks back on growing up in the Mon Valley "with appreciation for some things and good humor about others."

"I did not feel well suited to my surroundings growing up," he said. "Time and certain experiences have helped me to understand and appreciate my roots."

One source of perspective came when Kellman returned from college for two summers and worked at the Monessen Plant of Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel Corp.

"Getting a close-up of the working life shared by so many people in our area made an impression on me," he said. "In the mill, there were men who were the fathers of people I had gone to school with, and I got a good glimpse of how hard-working and modest they were. Many had fought in World War II, had traveled widely, and had interesting hobbies and skills. The experience also was troubling in some ways, as there already were signs at the time of the steel industry's coming decline."

Kellman's respect for family values was enhanced when he met his wife-to-be, Pamela Hilpert, a native of Briarcliff Manor, N.Y., when he was on the faculty at Swarthmore College and she was doing her residency at Temple University in Philadelphia. Pamela, a graduate of Mount Holyoke College, the University of Rochester (Ph.D. in neurophysiology), and the Albert Einstein School of Medicine (medical degree), is a radiologist specializing in women's imaging (ultrasound, MRI, mammography). She practices with Valley Advanced Imaging in Encino.

The Kellmans are the parents of three daughters -- Julie Ann, 17; Laura, 14; and Kim, 13. They attend The Marlborough School in Los Angeles, where they play basketball, tennis and volleyball, have a flair for digital arts, and excel in the classroom as "math goddesses," Kellman said.

Adding to Kellman's zest for life is his status as a pilot. The "hobby" began in 1986 because of his research on visual perception.

"There is an active interest by the military, NASA, etc. on the visual information pilots use to control aircraft in visual flight and landing," he said. "I would attend research talks at conferences and I became fascinated by flight and the skills involved. So I obtained the name of a flight instructor and after one introductory lesson I was hooked."

Kellman currently owns a Cessna P-210, a single-engine, six-seat, turbo-charged, pressurized aircraft. It cruises at about 180 knots (209 mph) and can fly at 23,000 feet. Kellman has integrated flying with his travel and work, piloting his plane across the United States a couple of times a year for meetings and other assignments. He and his family flew their own plane to and from Alaska two years ago.

Kellman also has done some flying for Angel Flight, an organization in which volunteers use their aircraft to transport medical patients from outlying areas to treatment centers.

"That's very rewarding, as it often provides a solution to a problem that would be hard to solve otherwise," he said.

Reflecting on his life, Kellman said he is "genuinely happy" for the diverse experiences and challenges he has had. "It's been a privilege to contribute to research in cognitive science, which is a young and exciting field," he said. "I have enjoyed writing papers and books that others actually use sometimes. Researchers often labor in obscurity. I've been lucky enough to receive a number of national awards for research, so it is nice to know there has been some impact."

Kellman also is "very proud" of the students who have passed through his classrooms.

"Several recent students who received their doctorates in our UCLA laboratory have become assistant professors at universities around the country," he said. "That's a highly competitive proposition right now, so I am very proud of them."

That pride is based, in part, on the lessons learned in the Mon Valley.

"There was, and still is, I suppose, a legacy of hard work and creating opportunities for the next generation," Kellman said. "Hard work tends to be contagious, and I've tried to use well the opportunities others worked to create for me. Hopefully, I can continue that legacy with my children and my students."