Prof. em. Dr. Kevan A.C. Martin

Kevan A.C. Martin has been Full Professor of System Neurophysiology and Director of the Institute of Neuroinformatics, which was founded in 1995 by the ETH Zurich and the University of Zurich. His research explores the basic microcircuits of the neocortex and their generic functions through a synthesis of experimental and theoretical work. This has led him (jointly with Prof. Rodney J. Douglas) to develop a unified model of the structure and operation of the basic cortical microcircuit.

Kevan Martin is a British citizen, born in Cape Town. After completing his Bachelor of Science degree with major subjects Logic and Metaphysics, Physiology, and Psychology, he obtained a Masters degree in Civil Engineering (cum laude) from the University of Cape Town in 1975. He won a graduate scholarship to Wolfson College, Oxford, where he completed a D. Phil. in Developmental Neurobiology in 1978. He began collaborating with David Whitteridge, the Waynflete Professor of Physiology, to link structure and function in the visual cortex. Their close association continued until Whitteridge-s death in 1994.

In 1979 he was elected to the prestigious Weir Junior Research Fellowship at University College, Oxford, where he also was appointed Junior Dean. In 1984 he was elected to the EPA Cephalosporin Junior Research Fellowship at Linacre College, Oxford. In 1985 he became the Ovenstone Senior Research Fellow at University College, Oxford, and, as one of the founding members of the Medical Research Council-s Anatomical Neuropharmacology Unit, a Senior Scientist of the Medical Research Council.

Kevan Martin was awarded the first Wellcome Prize of the Physiological Society in 1986 for outstanding contributions to physiology by a young physiologist. In 1989 he became an Adjunct Professor of the University of Alabama, Birmingham. He is a Foreign Associate of the Royal Society, South Africa and was Henry Head Research Fellow of the Royal Society, London, from 1990-1995.