Campbell/Spillane Substance Use Research - Interview with Billy Martin

Abstract

Billy Martin, Ph.D., was chair of the Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) School of Medicine’s Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology at the time of his death on June 9th, 2008. He was internationally renowned for his research in understanding addiction and drugs of abuse and how they affect the brain. Dr. Martin played a prominent role in developing the department’s reputation for landmark research in drugs of abuse. For more than 30 years, his primary focus was researching the effects of marijuana’s principal psychoactive ingredient, delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC. In the late 1970s, Martin was the first to show that most of the behavioral effects of marijuana were attributable to the compound THC, and his contributions to the study of cannabinoid receptors in the brain brought new life to what was once thought to be a dead-end field. In 1997, Martin was awarded a National Institutes of Health Method to Extend Research in Time (MERIT) Award for his work in understanding the effect of marijuana on the brain. Martin also was asked by the National Institute of Drug Abuse (NIDA) to head an international program project grant on marijuana. Martin directed a team of prominent marijuana researchers from the United States and abroad in investigating anandamide, a naturally occurring marijuana-like substance in the brain. Martin served as director of VCU’s NIDA Center for Drug Abuse Research, which attracted more than $20 million in federal funding. In 1998, Martin was honored as a top contributor in science with a Virginia Top Scientist Award and received the VCU Distinguished Scholarship Award in 1996. He also was the first recipient of the Outstanding Inventor Award from the VCU Tech Transfer Office in recognition of his multiple patents based on his research. Martin was to receive the Nathan B. Eddy Award on June 15, the highest honor awarded by the College on Problems of Drug Dependence (CPDD). He also was scheduled to receive the VCU Award for Excellence in the fall of 2008, the highest honor that VCU bestows on a faculty member. Source: “Internationally renowned VCU researcher Billy Martin, Ph.D., dies” VCU News, 9 June 2008. https://www.news.vcu.edu/article/Internationally_renowned_VCU_researcher_Billy_Martin_PhD_dies Accessed 09 June 2023