Martin Chalfie

Martin Chalfie is a University Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at Columbia University and former chair of the department. A distinguished biologist, he earned an A.B. in Biochemistry from Harvard University in 1969 and a Ph.D. in Physiology from Harvard in 1977 under the supervision of Robert Perlman. From 1977 to 1982, he served as a postdoctoral fellow at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, England, working with Sydney Brenner, where he co-established the first genetic model for mechanosensation using the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans alongside John Sulston. He joined the Columbia faculty as an Assistant Professor in 1982.

Chalfie's research focuses on the developmental genetics of identified nerve cells, particularly the six touch receptor neurons in C. elegans, investigating neuronal cell fate determination, the molecular basis of mechanosensation, neuronal degeneration, microtubule structure and function, and ion channel structure and function. His seminal 1994 Science paper, 'Green Fluorescent Protein as a Marker for Gene Expression,' introduced GFP as a biological marker, revolutionizing imaging of gene expression and protein localization in living cells and earning him a share of the 2008 Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Osamu Shimomura and Roger Y. Tsien. Chalfie is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Medicine, a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a Foreign Member of the Royal Society. He served as President of the Society for Developmental Biology, is the current President of the American Society for Cell Biology, and chairs the Committee on Human Rights of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. Key publications include 'Developmental genetics of the mechanosensory neurons of Caenorhabditis elegans' (Developmental Biology, 1981) and 'Genes regulating touch cell development in Caenorhabditis elegans' (Genetics, 2001). His work has profoundly influenced neuroscience and cell biology.

Professional Email: mc21@columbia.edu