In Memoriam: Thomas R. Martin, MD
Former ATS President, Thomas R. Martin, MD, died peacefully on Sept. 14, 2025. He was Emeritus Professor of Medicine at the University of Washington in Seattle. A pedigreed clinician and researcher, Dr. Martin had a vision for a program to support researchers and secured two grants from the Veterans Association, which launched the ATS Research Program. The program has since gone on to provide funding to many early career investigators, jumpstarting careers that have contributed to further elucidating the underpinnings of diseases in pulmonary, critical care and sleep medicine.
Dr. Martin’s involvement in supporting career trajectories went beyond cultivating relationships with funding agencies; he was also a generous donor who supported the ATS Research Program.
Dr. Martin’s interests in clinical care, teaching and research led him to join the American Thoracic Society in 1980, where he took on various leadership roles: chair of the Assembly on Allergy, Immunology and Inflammation, associate editor of the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, and a member of the ATS Executive Committee (1999-2004).
He worked closely with the ATS’s government affairs team to advocate for members and their patients. As ATS President in 2002-2003, he saw first-hand the remarkable energy and dedication that patients and patient advocacy groups brought to the American Thoracic Society as a part of the ATS Public Advisory Roundtable (PAR). In 2007, his passion for patients and his dedication to public service earned him the William J. Martin II PAR Distinguished Achievement Award.
In 2021, Dr. Martin chaired the Global Health Roadmap Working Group, which developed the society’s global health agenda. This collaboration with leaders of other organizations around the world was a great privilege and honor for Dr. Martin.
While his research achievements, including decades-long funding from the VA Research Service and NIH Lung Division, earned him the respect and admiration of his colleagues and fellow ATS members, Dr. Martin will be remembered as much for being “just one of the nicest people you’ll ever meet.”
That he cared deeply about the ATS was beyond doubt. In one of his last communications, he had this to say: "I know that the ATS faces many challenges, but it is a very special organization with so many important domains and an absolutely incredible staff, and I’m so very proud to have been a part of it."
Donations to the ATS Research Program may be made in his honor: https://aeugmntn.donorsupport.co/page/ThomasRMartinMemorial.