Seamus J. Martin is an Irish molecular biologist and immunologist working at The Smurfit Institute of Genetics in Trinity College Dublin. Since 1999, he has held the Smurfit Chair of Medical Genetics at Trinity College Dublin, and his research focuses on the links between cell death, cell stress, and inflammation. Martin is known for his contributions to understanding the molecular control of the mode of regulated cell death known as apoptosis. Martin received the 'GlaxoSmithKline Award' of the Biochemical Society in 2006,[1] the British Science Association's 'Charles Darwin Award' in 2005, and The 'RDS-Irish Times Boyle Medal' in 2014,[2] for his work on deciphering the role of caspases in apoptosis. In 2006, he was elected to the Royal Irish Academy,[3] in 2009 he awarded EMBO Membership,[4] and in 2023 he was elected to the Academia Europaea.[5] His research work is widely cited and he received a European Research Council Advanced Research award in 2021.[6]
Martin is an author of the 11th, 12th, and 13th editions of the award-winning textbook, Essential Immunology,[7] and since 2014, he has served as Editor-in-Chief of The FEBS Journal (Cambridge, UK), an international life sciences academic journal.