Michael Martens

Michael Martens, PhD is an Assistant Professor in the Division of Biostatistics within the Data Science Institute at the Medical College of Wisconsin, where he also serves as Assistant Director of the Biostatistics Shared Resource for the Cancer Center. Additionally, he holds an adjunct Assistant Professor position at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Dr. Martens serves as Statistical Director for the Blood and Marrow Transplant Clinical Trials Network Data and Coordinating Center and for the Infection & Immune Reconstitution Working Committee of the Center for International Blood and Marrow Transplant Research.

Dr. Martens' research focuses on developing and applying advanced statistical methodologies to clinical trials in hematopoietic cell transplantation and oncology. His work spans survival analysis, adaptive trial design, machine learning applications, Bayesian statistics, and statistical safety monitoring. He has made significant contributions to the analysis of time-to-event data, incorporation of historical data into clinical trials, and statistical methods for immune reconstitution studies.

His publication record demonstrates consistent productivity with 43 peer-reviewed articles through late 2025, including publications in high-impact journals such as NEJM, JAMA Oncology, Blood, and Journal of Clinical Oncology. His recent work (2023-2025) shows a strong focus on statistical methodology development applied to critical questions in transplantation research, with emphasis on graft-versus-host disease prophylaxis, vaccine responses in immunocompromised patients, and immune recovery after cellular therapies.

Selected Scientific Awards:

• Outstanding Graduate School Educator, Medical College of Wisconsin (2020-2023, three consecutive years)
• Distinguished Student Paper Award, Eastern Northern American Region of the International Biometric Society (2017)
• Biostatistics Fellowship, Medical College of Wisconsin (2012)

Dr. Martens has successfully advised multiple PhD and MS students to completion and currently mentors several doctoral candidates. His substantial research funding includes major NIH grants as co-investigator and principal investigator, supporting both methodological development and clinical applications. His role as Statistical Director for national networks provides unique opportunities for students to work with large-scale clinical trial data and contribute to advancing statistical methodology in transplantation research.