Chancellor Martin’s biography
Chancellor Biddy Martin, and Richard Davidson, a UW professor of psychology and psychiatry and director of the Center for Investigating Healthy Minds (CIHM), escort His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet from the grounds of Olin House, the chancellor's university residence, following a speech by His Holiness during a private reception on May 16, 2010. View more photos. Photo: Jeff Miller
Biddy Martin began serving as chancellor of the University of Wisconsin-Madison in September 2008.
During her first year, she and her administration formulated and won approval of the Madison Initiative for Undergraduates, a supplemental tuition program that paves the way for improvements in undergraduate education and affordability at UW-Madison.
She also oversaw the critical final phases of the university’s reaccreditation process and helped create the campus’s strategic framework. Included in her strategic priorities and initiatives are provision of an exemplary undergraduate education, renewal of the university’s commitment to its public mission, investment in scholarly domains in which the university has existing or potential strength, recruitment and retention of the best faculty and staff, enhancement of diversity to ensure excellence in education and research, and responsible stewardship of resources.
Martin was also a driving force behind the university’s common-book project, Go Big Read, which in 2009-10 examined the Michael Pollan book In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto and during 2010-11 explored The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot. The book selected for 2011-12 is Enrique’s Journey by Sonia Nazario.
Martin recently traveled twice to China, where she met with university, business and government leaders to forge faculty and student exchanges and collaborations, and institution-to-institution partnerships. She also visited Taipei and met with high-level officials there.
For more on Martin’s many accomplishments at UW-Madison, visit the Leadership Highlights section of this website.
As provost at Cornell University from 2000-2008, Martin served as the president’s first deputy officer and reported to the president as Cornell’s chief educational officer and chief operating officer. She was responsible for overseeing all academic programs, with the exception of those programs reporting to the provost for medical affairs in New York City.
Martin received her Ph.D. in German literature from UW-Madison in 1985. That same year, she joined Cornell’s faculty full time as an assistant professor of German studies and women’s studies. In 1991, she was promoted to associate professor in the Department of German Studies, with a joint appointment in the Women’s Studies Program. She served as chair of the Department of German Studies from 1994-1997, and in 1997 was promoted to full professor in the department. In 1996, she was named senior associate dean in the College of Arts and Sciences. Martin was appointed as provost at Cornell University effective July 1, 2000.
Martin is a distinguished scholar of German studies and author of numerous articles and two books — one on a literary and cultural figure in the Freud circle, Lou Andreas-Salomé, and a second on gender theory.