Joseph Boyd Martin records, 1991-2007 (inclusive), 1997-2007 (bulk), 1991-2007 (inclusive), bulk: 1997-2007 (bulk)

Joseph Boyd Martin became the Dean of the Faculty of Harvard Medical School in 1997, following the term of Daniel C. Tosteson (1977-1997). Martin came to Harvard Medical School from the University of California, San Francisco, where he had served as Dean of the School of Medicine (1989-1993) and Chancellor (1993-1997). Prior to his tenure at the University of California, San Francisco, Martin had been a faculty member in the Department of Neurology at Harvard Medical School from 1978-1989. As Dean, Martin oversaw Harvard's largest division, including 10,000 faculty members and $1.2 billion in National Institutes of Health (NIH) grants.

Martin's tenure at Harvard Medical School began with an emphasis on fostering collaboration between Harvard Medical School and its affiliated hospitals. He worked to ease tensions between the hospitals by forming an advisory group to review lateral moves of doctors and researchers among Harvard Medical School affiliated hospitals in order to prevent "poaching" and by instituting a series of collaborative retreats for affiliated hospital staff. A new system of appointments and promotions was instituted, placing a greater emphasis on teaching as a path to promotion. In addition, the Harvard Medical Collaborative was founded in 1999 as a group consisting of the Dean and leaders from the Harvard affiliated hospitals, working to coordinate initiatives.

Diversity was also a priority for Martin. He initiated a review of assistant and associate professors that led to the promotion of deserving women and minorities. The Executive Council on Diversity created a plan to monitor diversity in Harvard Medical School residency programs and, in 2000, Martin and the hospital leaders adopted a more aggressive plan for the recruitment of minorities to senior-level faculty positions. Martin's term was also noteworthy for the number of women appointed to leadership positions at Harvard Medical School, including: Carla Shatz, head of the Department of Neurobiology; Joan Brugge, head of the Department of Cell Biology; Nancy Andrews, the first Dean of Basic Sciences and Graduate Studies; Cynthia Walker, the first female Executive Dean for Administration; and Joan Reede, Dean for Diversity and Community Partnership, the first female African-American dean in school history.

Several changes to medical education were instituted by Martin. The Department of Systems Biology was created in 2003, the first new department at Harvard Medical School in twenty years. Ph.D. programs in Systems Biology and Chemical Biology were also introduced during Martin's tenure. In 2005 the MD/MBA program was introduced, in conjunction with Harvard Business School. As part of the larger Medical Education Reform Initiative, the third year program was reconfigured to allow students to remain in one Harvard Medical School affiliated hospital for their entire third year, giving students the opportunity to follow patients through various levels of care. There were also several advances in technology at Harvard Medical School, including the introduction of eCommons in 1999, which provided a central access point to the school's electronic resources, and the MyCourses web portal in 2001, which made course materials available on the web for students.

During his ten years as Dean, Martin oversaw the development and expansion of Harvard Medical School research centers and facilities. The Juvenile Diabetes Foundation Center for Islet Transplantation was established in 1998 through a grant from the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation. Martin coordinated the establishment of the Dana Farber/Harvard Cancer Center in 1999, a collaboration of seven Harvard Medical School affiliates, funded by a grant from the National Cancer Institute; this venture established the largest cancer research enterprise in the United States. In 2000, the Harvard Clinical Research Institute, a partnership between Harvard Medical School, Partners HealthCare, and CareGroup, was established to create a central gateway for industry-sponsored research. Later that year, the Harvard Medical School/Partners Center for Genetics and Genomics also opened. The Harvard Center for Neurodegeneration and Repair, comprising neurology and neuroscience faculty and researchers working on neurodegenerative diseases, was formed in 2001. In 2003, the New Research Building, the largest Harvard building constructed to date, was dedicated, to foster collaboration between the basic and clinical sciences.

Joseph B. Martin was born in Bassano, Alberta, Canada on October 20, 1938. After earning a bachelor's degree from Eastern Mennonite College in Harrisonburg, Virginia, he received his medical education at the University of Alberta, Edmonton, earning his M.D. in 1962. Martin completed a residency in neurology in 1966 and a fellowship in neuropathology in 1967 at Case Western Reserve University. From 1967 to 1970, Martin was a research fellow and instructor in medicine and anatomy at the University of Rochester, School of Medicine and Dentistry; he earned his Ph.D. in anatomy from the institution in 1971.

Martin began his professional career at McGill University in 1970, where he was a Professor of Medicine and a Professor of Neurology; in 1977 he became chairman of the Department of Neurology and Neurosurgery. While at McGill, Martin also served as Senior Physician at Montreal General Hospital and Neurologist-in-Chief at the Montreal Neurological Institute.

In 1978, Martin began his first stay at Harvard Medical School, as Bullard Professor of Neurology, a position he held until 1984. In that year, Martin was appointed the first Julieanne Dorn Professor of Neurology at Harvard Medical School, holding that position until his departure in 1989. While at Harvard Medical School, Martin was also the Chief of Neurology Service at Massachusetts General Hospital and served as the hospital's interim director in 1981. In 1980, he was instrumental in the construction and development of the Huntington's Disease Center Without Walls in Boston. The Center was supported by a grant from the National Institutes of Health and Martin served as the program director and principal investigator. A multi-university collaboration at Massachusetts General Hospital, the Center identified a genetic marker near the gene for Huntington's Disease, eventually leading to the discovery of the gene itself. In 1989, Martin chaired an Institute of Medicine committee on mapping the human brain. The committee's 1991 report was a major guide for the Human Brain Project, launched in 1993 to develop and support the study of neuroinformatics.

In 1989, Martin was named Dean of the School of Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco. Among his accomplishments as Dean was the establishment of the W. M. Keck Foundation Center for Integrative Neurosciences, which combined studies of the brain and behavior, and the Gladstone Institute for Virology and Immunology, which specialized in AIDS research. Martin also initiated planning for a Comprehensive Cancer Center. In 1993 Martin became Chancellor of the University of California, San Francisco and served in that position until his return to Harvard Medical School as Dean in 1997. During his term as Chancellor, Martin developed a long-range campus renewal plan that included collaborating with the city of San Francisco to expand the campus to a second major site in Mission Bay.

Martin received several honorary degrees during his career. These include an honorary master's degree from Harvard in 1978, and honorary doctorate degrees from McGill University in 1994, the University of Rochester in 1996, the Medical College of Wisconsin in 1997, and the University of Alberta, Edmonton in 1998. During his career, Martin authored over 240 articles, over 100 reviews, and over 25 books on topics related to neurology and endocrinology. In addition, Martin served as an editor of Harrison's Principles of Internal Medicine, a widely used medical textbook, and on the editorial boards of The New England Journal of Medicine and Science. Martin was also a member of the Council of the Institute of Medicine, a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a member of the American Association of Physicians, and President of the American Neurological Association.