Dr. Joel Martin is the NRC's Chief Digital Research Officer and Chief Science Officer. He holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science, Machine Learning, from the Georgia Institute of Technology and completed post‑doctoral studies at the University of Pittsburgh. Dr. Martin has received awards for exceptional leadership and for innovative approaches to technology transfer. He has published dozens of peer-reviewed research articles and taught Computer Science courses at both the University of Ottawa and Carleton University.
Since joining the NRC in 1994, he has been a researcher and served in multiple leadership roles in the Digital Technologies Research Centre, including Acting Director General, Senior Director, Director of Research and Development, Program Lead of the Multimedia Analytic Tools for Security program, Team Leader, and project lead.
His strategic leadership has resulted in an increase in the impact of digital technology research at the NRC and beyond, including advances and applications in data science and analytics, artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning, machine translation, computer vision and graphics, cybersecurity, human-computer interfaces, natural language processing, medical and bioinformatics, and the Internet of Things (IoT). For example, under his leadership, the Research Centre has been successful in introducing digital technologies to detect disease outbreaks, some of which are now used worldwide, and digital technologies that promote Indigenous languages in Canada. In addition, Dr. Martin has established research and development programs drawing interest and collaboration from universities and other government departments. These initiatives include the NRC's Data Analytics Centre, the Multimedia Analytic Tools for Security program, and the AI for Design Challenge program. They have increased both scientific output and impact of the NRC's Digital Technologies Research Centre to Canada and Canadians.