Martin is a co-chair of the SSG. He received is PhD in physical oceanography from  Institut für Meereskunde, Kiel. In 1994 he took a post doctoral position at MIT before proceeding into positions at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory and Columbia University. Martin remained in America until 2004, when he returned to Germany, to take up a Professorship position at Leibniz-Institute for Marine Science, Kiel, where he is now the deputy director. Some of Martins many research interests include the role of the ocean in interannual to centennial climate variability and variability of regional ocean circulation.