Kelsey
Martin

Kelsey Martin is professor emerita of biological chemistry, psychiatry and biobehavioral sciences at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA). She is also executive vice president of the Simons Foundation Autism Research Initiative and the Simons Foundations Neuroscience Collaborations.

Martin received her B.A from Harvard University in 1979, having majored in English and American Language and Literature. She went on a two year break from academia to volunteer with the Peace Corps in Zaire, where she took an interest in medicine. She decided to go to medical school and obtained her PhD in molecular virology in 1992 from Yale University. For her post-doctoral work, she moved to Columbia University, working under the Nobel laureate Eric Kandel.

It was at Columbia that she discovered that single branches of neuronal axons can develop stronger synapses as a result of applied serotonin – no instructions from the cell body needed. This process, known as local translation, challenged the idea that the proteins needed for synapses must be created in the cell body and transferred to the axons.

In 1999, Martin took up a position as assistant professor in psychiatry and biological chemistry at UCLA, and soon become chair of the department of biological chemistry. She was dean of the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA from 2015-2021. She has continued her work on the process of brain plasticity, investigating how experiences rewire the brain as neurons store memories about them.

Martin is an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine, the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She has won awards including the Jordi Folch-Pi Memorial Award, the Daniel X. Freedman Award, the Wilber Lucius Cross Medal and the Eric R. Kandel Award.