Paul Martin

Professor Paul Martin is Professor of Experimental Ophthalmology in the Faculty of Medicine and Health at the University of Sydney, affiliated with the Save Sight Institute. He received his PhD in Physiology from the University of Sydney in 1986. Following his doctorate, he was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry in Germany from 1986 to 1992, funded by an Alexander von Humboldt Fellowship. He then joined the University of Sydney as Teaching and Research Faculty from 1992 to 2003. In 2003, Martin became Director of Research at the National Vision Research Institute of Australia, serving until 2010, when he returned to the University of Sydney in his current position.

Paul Martin's research investigates the biological basis of visual perception and colour vision, with emphasis on primate retinal ganglion cells, geniculocortical pathways, koniocellular projections, and receptive field properties. His studies have addressed luminance and chromatic modulation sensitivity, heterochromatic flicker photometry, and extraclassical receptive fields in parvocellular, magnocellular, and koniocellular pathways. Key publications include "Luminance and chromatic modulation sensitivity of macaque ganglion cells and human observers" (Journal of the Optical Society of America A, 1990; 599 citations), "Evidence that blue-on cells are part of the third geniculocortical pathway in primates" (European Journal of Neuroscience, 1997; 431 citations), "The physiological basis of heterochromatic flicker photometry demonstrated in the ganglion cells of the macaque retina" (The Journal of Physiology, 1988; 379 citations), "Sensitivity of macaque retinal ganglion cells to chromatic and luminance flicker" (The Journal of Physiology, 1989; 339 citations), "Extraclassical receptive field properties of parvocellular, magnocellular, and koniocellular cells in the primate lateral geniculate nucleus" (Journal of Neuroscience, 2002; 293 citations), and "Cell types and cell circuits in human and non-human primate retina" (Progress in Retinal and Eye Research, 2020; 220 citations). His scholarship has amassed over 10,400 citations. Martin has obtained Australian Research Council funding, including Discovery Project DP160104316. He engages in teaching, PhD supervision in visual neuroscience, and delivers public lectures on colour vision topics.

Professional Email: paul.martin@sydney.edu.au