Martin Chalfie, the University Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at Columbia University, shared the 2008 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his introduction of green fluorescent protein (GFP) as a biological marker. Chalfie obtained his A.B. and Ph.D. from Harvard University and did postdoctoral research with Sydney Brenner at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge, England. As a postdoctoral fellow, Chalfie, with John Sulston, established the first genetic model for mechanosensation using the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans. He and his lab subsequently used molecular, genetic, and electrophysiological means to study neuronal specification, differentiation, outgrowth, and degeneration; microtubule structure and function; and mechanosensory transduction and its modulation in C. elegans.

Chalfie is a past President of the Society for Developmental Biology and the current President-Elect of the American Society for Cell Biology. He is a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences and the U.S. National Academy of Medicine and chairs the Committee on Human Rights of the U.S. National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.