Dr. Melanie Martin graduated with a BSc (Hons) in Physics from University of Manitoba. She then went on to obtain an MS, MPhil and a PhD in Applied Physics and Biomedical Engineering from Yale University. She was a postdoctoral scholar and an associate scientist in Biology at Caltech in Pasadena, California before she returned to Canada with a University Faculty Award from NSERC in 2004. She is now a Professor of Physics at University of Winnipeg and the Director of the Magnetic Resonance Microscopy Centre.  Her science career started as part of the SHAD program at University of Manitoba in 1990 and she continues as part of the SHAD program mentoring interns.

Dr. Martin holds or has held a number of NSERC, CIHR, society, provincial and local grants.  She has reviewed grants and been part of grant selection committees for many international, national, provincial and local committees including CIHR, NSERC, Canadian Centre for Nuclear Innovation, the US National Academies, and Innovation and Technology Commission, Hong Kong. She was a key contributor to the NSERC-sponsored “Get the Full Picture: Women, Diversity and Research Excellence” event on June 8, 2015 and co-conceived and co-organized an event for the International Day of the Girl on October 16, 2015 with the Manitoba Government.

Dr. Martin was the Chair of the Division of Physics in Medicine and Biology of the Canadian Association of Physicists (CAP). She is also a member of CAP’s NSERC-Liaison Committee. Dr. Martin won the University of Winnipeg Erica and Arnold Award for Excellence in Research in 2012 and was the University of Winnipeg Chancellor’s Research Chair from 2013-16. Dr. Martin’s research specialty is the development of non-invasive magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) methods to understand the central nervous system. Her most recent publication discusses the development of an MRI technique to infer the sizes of sub-micron structures in samples.