Dr. Joseph B. Martin is the Edward R. and Anne G. Lefler Professor of Neurobiology at Harvard Medical School.

Dr. Martin served as dean of the faculty of medicine at Harvard University from 1997 to 2007. In 1999, he helped establish the Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center, an innovative collaboration which brings together seven Harvard-affiliated institutions intent on reducing the burden of cancer. He also led the formation of the Harvard NeuroDiscovery Center, a virtual center of researchers working together on understanding the prevention, causes and treatment of neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease, designed to cultivate scientific collaboration between the basic and clinical sciences.

From 1989 to 1993, Dr. Martin served as dean of the School of Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), and was appointed chancellor of UCSF in 1993.

Dr. Martin was born in Alberta, Canada. He received his premedical and medical education at the University of Alberta, Edmonton. He completed training in neurology at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, and received his PhD in anatomy from the University of Rochester in 1971.