Chris Martin is the Interim Vice President for Science Programs at The Kavli Foundation, where he has been a Science Program Officer since 2013. He leads the Foundation’s interactions with its 20 endowed Kavli Institutes around the world in the fields of Theoretical Physics, Astrophysics, Nanoscience, and Neuroscience and builds catalytic opportunities to advance scientific research and funding, such as the U.S. BRAIN Initiative.
Dr. Martin’s interests span the continuum from physics to public policy. Prior to joining the Foundation, he was a professor of physics and astronomy at Oberlin College (2004-2013) where he studied the Milky Way Galaxy using the Herschel Space Observatory, long duration balloon missions, and telescopes around the world. During his tenure at Oberlin, he spent a year as an American Association for the Advancement of Science Congressional Fellow with the United States Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation and was involved in the America COMPETES Reauthorization Act of 2010, space policy, nanotechnology, and the federal funding of science research. Dr. Martin completed his Ph.D. in theoretical physics at the University of California Santa Barbara in 1999, and then became the Station Science Leader at the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station and spent two years wintering over at the bottom of the Earth during his postdoctoral fellowship at the Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.
